A Wheeling, W. Va. man's entrepreneurial dreams have gone up in flames because of an arson-for-hire scheme. In a feeble attempt to get out of crushing debt, Thomas H. Smith II, 26, paid a teenager to deliberately torch his Play It Again sports store, which was located in a Pennsylvania strip mall. As a result, the unscrupulous business owner has accrued more than $1 million in restitution fees and a five-year prison sentence.

Smith reportedly asked three different juveniles to ignite the blaze before finding a willing participant in a 16-year-old store employee. The teen set the fire on January 10, 2007 after receiving $5,000 and some unorthodox training — this consisted of learning how to use a heat gun to set cardboard afire in a back room — from Smith. After the store burned down, Smith filed insurance claims totaling $30,000.

The fire not only burned down the sporting goods store but also caused more than $1 million in damages to four other strip-mall establishments — the basis for the court-ordered restitution. Smith pled guilty to charges of arson and insurance fraud and will be allowed to self-report to his new "job" as prison inmate for the next five years.