Charges Dropped Over Facebook Apple Rant

What you say on sites like Twitter and Facebook can have undesirable effects, and Joe Lipari knows that all too well. After a two-year battle with the authorities over a Fight Club-inspired Apple rant posted on Facebook, charges against the Army veteran have been dropped.

According to Metro NY, Lipari had a rather negative experience at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store back in September 2009. He needed some assistance with his iPhone, but was not satisfied with Apple's customer service.

In response, Lipari paraphrased a Fight Club quote on his Facebook wall. It read, "Joe Lipari might walk into an Apple store on Fifth Avenue with an Armalite AR-10 gas powered semi-automatic weapon and pump round after round into one of those smug, fruity little concierges."

The original Fight Club quote reads, "And this button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho might just snap, and then stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers."

A friend saw the quote on Lipari's wall and called the police.

"Within 95 minutes, the SWAT team was at my door," Lipari told Metro NY, which questioned whether the 31-year-old is the "poster child for Internet stupidity." For the past two years, he has been fighting charges against him, but earlier this year, a Queens criminal court dismissed the case.

Lipari said he would not sue the city, but is planning to move.

Earlier this year, comedian Gilbert Gottfried posted two about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, prompting Aflac to drop him as the voice of its trademark duck.

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