A woman arrested for first-degree arson said she torched a hookah lounge in Delray Beach in a “fit of rage” after she was raped, authorities said.
The fire in the early hours of Jan. 1 caused a total loss of the building housing Ali Babas Hookah Lounge, at 2709 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach Police said in an arrest affidavit.
Authorities said that after the fire they found “Predator” spelled out in large letters with red duct tape on the front door, and a white couch cushion outside that had a bloodstain and “Predator” written on it.
Owner Rand Yasin told police that he had a small crowd for New Year’s Eve and that most of them had departed by 1 a.m., when he left, the affidavit said.
Yasin said that he’d recently befriended the 29-year-old woman, who he claimed had a drug problem and no home, and so had been letting her sleep inside Ali Babas on a couch because he felt sorry for her, according to the affidavit.
An Ali Babas employee said that he, the woman and many customers had been drinking alcohol that night, that she passed out on the couch, and that he locked the doors and left her sleeping there at about 2 to 2:30 a.m., the affidavit said.
The woman said that after she drank vodka and smoked part of a joint that the employee gave her, she felt drugged and not in control of her body. She said the employee raped her while she was lying on the couch and took pictures of her naked with his phone, the affidavit said.
When the drugs wore off, the woman said, she was so angry that she wrote “Predator” with the duct tape on the door and on the couch cushion, which had her blood from the rape, the affidavit said.
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The woman said she was scared and furious and wanted to leave evidence of the rape in front of the business, according to the affidavit.
The employee denied being intimate with the woman, however, the affidavit said.
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The woman said she lit a rag on fire, using it to set on fire the tapestries hanging on the south wall by the couches, before she ran away from the business, the affidavit said.
She was arrested Wednesday and is being held on $10,000 bond, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office records.
