PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 11, 2022
Safeway employee quits, returns
two months later to start fi re at store
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Of the Keizertimes
A former Safeway employee was
arrested on Feb. 4 after returning to a
Keizer Safeway two months after he
quit and lighting a fi re in the store’s
bathroom, setting off the sprinkler sys-
tem and causing $1,500 in damages
according to police reports.
The incident occurred on Jan.
25 and a weeklong Keizer Police
Department investigation led to the
arrest of 30-year-old George Samuel
Bond, who is a Marion County resident.
He is being charged with arson in the
second degree and criminal mischief
in the fi rst degree following the arrest.
According to a Keizer police prob-
able cause statement, employees at
the Safeway in Keizer reported on the
evening of Jan. 25 that a male subject
had entered the bathroom and started
a fi re.
The police statement said that video
surveillance showed a man wearing
a hoodie entering the bathroom at
approximately 8:30 p.m. and exiting at
8:40 p.m. – no longer wearing a hoodie.
Employees estimated that the fi re
began between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
The fi re activated the sprinkler
system and fl ooded the bathroom, hall-
way and the deli section of the store.
The manager of the Safeway told Keizer
police, according to the statement, that
the cost to repair the bathroom and
fl ooded areas was $1,555.
The probable cause statement also
says that after reviewing the surveil-
lance video, three Safeway employees
stated that they recognized the man
who left the bathroom shortly before
the fi re started as Bond, who had
worked at the Safeway until he quit in
November of 2021.
Two of the employees who identi-
fi ed Bond worked with him in the meat
section of the store, according to the
police statement.
Keizer police detective Tim Lathrop
wrote in the probable cause statement
that he interviewed Bond at the Keizer
Police Department on the evening of
Feb. 4 and showed him surveillance
photos, which Bond admitted were
photos of him.
Lathrop wrote that Bond admitted
going to Safeway on the evening of
Jan. 25 but “repeatedly denied setting
the fi re in the bathroom even though
he was the only person in the mens
bathroom on the evening of Jan. 25.”
The Safeway located in Keizer.
Lathrop added that Bond told him
that he was “a prophet and preached
to people and that he was waiting for a
fi re to come.”
Photo by JOEY CAPPELLETTI of Keizertimes
Bond is scheduled to appear in court
on March 7 and was released with the
condition that he does not have any
contact with Safeway.
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