LET DOWN

Bounce House Businessman Jailed for Firebombing Rivals

He even staged an arson attack on his own company to avoid suspicion.

A party hire business owner in Australia was so obsessed with being the number one bounce house operator in Melbourne that he launched a series of arson attacks to take out his rivals. James Balcombe, 58, was jailed for up to 11 years on Thursday for firebombings his competitors’ businesses. The court heard that Balcombe even commissioned a man named Craig Anderson to burn his own company after becoming worried that police would find it suspicious that he hadn’t been targeted by the fires. The court also heard that Balcombe would instruct Anderson to attack the same targets multiple times if the initial fire only caused minor damage, and that one rival was hit three separate times. A molotov cocktail blaze completely gutted A&A Jumping Castles, destroying 110 bounce houses and causing $1.4 million in damage. Anderson was jailed for eight-and-a-half years for his role in the crimewave.