Chain pizza restaurant managers! Please do not set fire to competing establishments, even if it would be good for business.

This simple message rings out this weekend in Lake City, Fla., where two managers of a Domino's restaurant were charged with arson after they allegedly torched a Papa John's across town. The fire "gutted" the Papa John's building, and was investigated from the outset by state and federal officials as a likely arson, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

The managers of the Domino's, Sean Davidson and Bryan Sullivan, were soon arrested. What was their motive?

Police said Sullivan's motive was that the Domino's location he was managing would see an increase in business if the Papa John's restaurant was put out of business.

It is burn or be burned in the south Florida chain pizza business, people.

One more thing: the gentlemen may have left a dangerous item on the roadside en route to the fire caper. Don't pick up anything weird on the roadside in Ocala Gainesville:

Police said that, during an interview, the suspects said they made an ignition device by using about an eight-inch-long clock, a 9-volt battery, one golf-ball-size amount of black powder gunpowder, and a plastic bag.

The suspects told police they dismantled the device before throwing it out of the vehicle they were riding in on I-75. Davidson and Sullivan told police they could not remember where they were when they threw it from the vehicle, but that it was probably between U.S. 90 in Lake City and Newberry Road in Gainesville.

Police are urging anyone who may spot an unusual or strange device along the interstate to avoid touching it and to call 911.

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Ted Mann