The Mattapan Girl. With the Burning Papers. At the Roller Rink.

This week in the strange but true tales of Boston’s most inept criminals, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office charged a 14 year old Mattapan girl with setting fire to the Chez Vouz roller rink after the facility banned her for fighting and making threats. The girl, whose name isn’t being released because of her age, managed to do this in sight of a surveillance camera, according to a DA release:

Video surveillance images retrieved from Chez Vous allegedly show the 14-year-old setting the fire by pushing burning papers into it. Civilian witness statements corroborated that video. She and a female friend were apprehended by Boston Police a short distance away.

Employees quickly put out the blaze with fire extinguishers, but not before it caused about $3000 in damage. There were about 120 people inside the rink at the time. “Thank goodness those employees kept their cool,” Suffolk D.A. (and mayoral candidate) Dan Conley said. “We don’t even want to consider what could have happened if they hadn’t acted quickly, calmly, and appropriately.” Indeed we don’t.