Target Employees Start Fire, Steal TVs, Get Arrested

At left, Jared Devonis reaches for a flatscreen TV; on the right, Nefatarah Meyer-Dierrks (top picture) passes water to Devonis, who is hiding (he emerges from the hiding spot in the bottom picture)

An employee at the Target in East New York is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to set fire to the store as a diversion while they stole $8,000 worth of flat-screen televisions. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling surveillance cameras! The FDNY says video depicts Jared Devonis, who was fired from Target two weeks ago, using a lighter to start a fire in the paper towel aisle.

Sources tell the Daily News that Devonis's girlfriend, one Nefatarah Meyer-Dierrks, escorted him into the storage area at 9 p.m. Friday, where he remained hidden until about 2 a.m., when the only employees in the store were the cleaners and restocking crews. As the fire drove them out the front door, he allegedly rolled a shopping cart loaded with eight televisions out the back and drove off.

Firefighters quickly put out the small blaze, which caused $100,000 in damage. After viewing the surveillance footage, investigators arrested the couple at their apartment the next day, but by that time Devonis had already sold four of the TVs! Now that's what we call a fire sale.