The Canberra Times reported that by 2017, James Balcombe’s "Awesome Party Hire" bouncy castle business had become the top bouncy castle business in Melbourne, Australia. The report raises two questions: 1) how many bouncy castle businesses are there in Melbourne, Australia? 2) how can one achieve dominance in such a crowded industry? To the first question we only get a partial response, and to my surprise, the answer was "more than one". The answer to question two is more obvious: in order to gain dominance over a crowded industry of bouncy-castles, you simply have to burn all the competing castles down.

Balcombe, who reportedly paid three henchmen to carry out 11 arson attacks against competing bouncy castle businesses in 2016 or 2017, reportedly told them: "Burn them down." This would mean that there were at least 12 businesses (11 plus Balcombe) in Melbourne. The report says that Balcombe was "so determined to destroy his rivals," that he instructed his henchmen to "return to businesses after the initial fire had caused minor damage," that one competitor "was attacked three times." Let's assume that there were 10 businesses. This would mean that one bouncy castle was used for every 450,000 Melbournians. As we will see, if needed, each business could have deployed more than 100 bounce castles. It is unlikely that residents will need a bouncy-castle more than a few times a year, and only for a short time. While our information may be limited, it's not impossible that Melbourne's bouncy castle market has become saturated.

All that changed when Balcombe offered $2,000 per fire to the henchmen.

The report states that "many" of the arson attempts were unsuccessful. However, at least one company (A&A Jumping Castles), was "totally" destroyed by a Molotov Cocktail, which "caused a huge fire to engulf the [bouncy castle] factory, and destroyed 110 (!) Owners of the business were forced to shut it down. Balcombe was now the leader of the inflatable pile after he had completely eliminated at least one competitor and crippled others to some degree.

Was he too successful? Balcombe was reportedly worried that the police might think so or that at least they could notice that only one bouncy castle business in the city had not been burned. Balcombe did exactly what you'd expect. He paid people to burn his business down. He reportedly thought that not only would this divert the suspicion but he could pocket hundreds of thousands in Australian dollars as insurance money.

The self-torching occurred on March 6, 2017. The Molotov-throwing henchman, however, was arrested only three days later. Did he turn? No! In Australia it is called "dobbing" and not "dobbing Balcombe". You better believe it.

The police were informed about the plan by the henchman who was sentenced to 8 and a half years in prison. Balcombe, who was charged with 11 counts for conspiracy to commit arson and released on bail, was arrested. A warrant for his arrest was issued after he did not show up at a hearing. He was eventually found living in Perth, more than 3,400 kilometers away on the other side of the continent/island/landmass. Balcombe, who was going by "Paul Johnson," ran a "fraudulent stamped operation" under the name of "Paul Johnson." While that sounds awfully dumb, it's not as stupid as his previous scheme. Balcombe, in any case, was extradited back to his state where he was found guilty and sentenced to eleven years.

Balcombe may have failed in his attempt to escape to Perth, but at least he did not try to flee using a Jet Ski to another landmass, which makes him smarter than one of his fellow countrymen. See "Attempt To Flee Australia On A Jet Ski Fails 90 Miles Later" (Mar. 28, 2019).