The owner of a shop on the Ocean City boardwalk torched his own store and made up a tale about being attacked by arsonists, all in an elaborate scheme to collect insurance money, police told NBC Philadelphia Thursday.
“I’m confused right now. This was a stupid and foolish thing I did,” James Schatzle told a municipal court judge during his arraignment Thursday afternoon.
Shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday, passersby pulled Schatzle, 73, from the Flags And Specialty Gifts shop at 14th Street and the boardwalk. Police said he later told investigators that two men assaulted him and started the fire.
But there’s more. On September 16, Schatzle filed a report with Ocean City Police in which he claimed two guys with whom he haggled about a sale on merchandise threatened to “come back and light you up,” Lt. Steven Ang said.
None of it was true, according to investigators.
“What we were finding inside the store didn’t match up to what the store owner was telling us…This whole thing was pre-meditated, back at least ten days, for him to recover some insurance money to recoup his [financial] losses for the season," Ang said.
Ocean City detectives said they began taking a closer look at Schatzle after learning a store he once owned in Galloway Township, Atlantic County was scene of a fire in September 2006. That blaze was ruled accidental, authorities said.
“We believe that based on [Galloway’s] investigation, maybe that gave him the idea to set [the Ocean City] fire to get some money,” Ang said.
Schatzle confessed to the crime and was arrested after being questioned Wednesday, according to police. He appeared in court for the arraignment via video-feed from the Cape May County Jail, where is being held in lieu of $50,000 full-cash bail.
Schatzle, who lives in Galloway Township, is charged with aggravated arson, insurance fraud, failure to report a fire, risking widespread injury and/or damage, and filing a false police report. He suffered smoke inhalation but was not seriously hurt in the fire.
Merchants on the same boardwalk block were stunned to hear of the allegations Thursday.
“It affected all of us because this whole block shut down for the day because of the fire,” said Jennifer Armstrong, who works at Ike’s Famous Crab Cakes II. “It’s kind of upsetting that we had to shut down. We lost business over something that was a lie," she said.
