Story posted Thursday, October 29, 2009
6 Year Sentence For Food Store Arson
An Elk Grove Village resident who set a paper goods aisle at Food 4 Less on Meacham Road ablaze last February was sentenced to six years behind bars for aggravated arson.
Pamela Dinter, 58, of the 1100 block of Cernan Court, received her sentence in a Rolling Meadows courtroom on Monday, Oct. 19 after pleading guilty to the crime earlier this year.
The fire was started when Dinter placed a lit cigarette into a shelf full of paper goods such as toilet paper and paper towels setting them alight. The fire was contained to the paper goods aisle but black smoke quickly enveloped the whole building leading to an evacuation of the store. Damage from the fire was estimated at over $1 million.
One female store employee was transported to Alexian Brothers Medical Center at the time.
At the time of the blaze, Elk Grove Village Fire Chief Rich Miller said investigators saw video of Dinter reaching her arm deep into the paper goods shelf and saw smoke coming from the same place when she pulled her arm out.
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