A warehouse employee in California reportedly burned his place of work to the ground, then compared himself to Luigi Mangione, saying, “Should have paid us enough to f— live.”
This is what Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, allegedly said last week as he recorded himself lighting the 1.2 million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse on fire in Ontario, California, resulting in more than $500 million in products being destroyed.
The warehouse—now burned to the ground—was a major distribution hub on the West Coast, handling products such as Huggies, Kleenex, and toilet paper.
During a press conference in the aftermath of the fire, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said that in a phone call to one witness, Abdulkarim allegedly “compared himself to Luigi Mangione,” the accused murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Essayli also reported that in a message to a co-worker an hour after the fire started, the disgruntled Abdulkarim allegedly said, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live. Pay us more of the value we bring, not corporations. Didn’t see the shareholders picking up a shift.”
Abdulkarim works for NFI Industries, an outside logistics firm that provides warehouse services to Kimberly-Clark. NFI pays warehouse workers an average of $18 per hour, according to Indeed salary data.
Instead of looking for a new job, Abdulkarim is now facing up to 20 years in prison. The alleged arsonist on Monday pleaded not guilty in a California courthouse.
Despite Abdulkarim’s actions, officials are taking a strong stance in prosecuting him to the fullest extent.
Essayli gave a stern warning to Abdulkarim’s sympathizers: “I don’t know if this guy saw himself as Luigi, but he’s an arsonist. He’s a criminal. America is founded on capitalism—anyone who attacks our way of life, our system, which provides the best goods and services to the most people, we’re going to come after aggressively.”
