McDonald’s employee sets fire to restaurant to halt customers

Joshua Daryl McGregor, 34, received the sentence after pleading guilty to arson, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

McGregor was also ordered to pay restitution for property lost in the fire, and to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term, according to a press release on July 31 by the Attorney’s Office.

As described in court documents and testimony, McGregor was an employee of the McDonald’s in Savannah City of Chatham County. In April last year, he was frustrated because the restaurant was too crowded.

He lit a piece of cardboard on fire and tossed it into the restaurant’s dumpster, which was full of cardboard and other flammable materials, and ensured the fire ignited before returning to the restaurant.

The fire became so intense that customers in the drive-through lane had to back out of the parking lot, and the restaurant was forced to briefly close while the Savannah Fire Department extinguished the blaze.

McGregor, who filmed the fire with his cell phone, was identified on surveillance video as starting the fire. At that time, he was training to become a manager at the outlet.

He was arrested by Savannah Police Department investigators, and in May pled guilty to arson in U.S. District Court.