A fan of the movie Fight Club was arrested today and is accused of orchestrating an attack on a Starbucks store in New York.
Kyle Shaw, 17, was charged with arson, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief in the bombing of the store that took place on 25 May.
The blast shattered the store's window's but didn't cause any injuries. New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly said Shaw was trying to emulate Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden. In the 1999 film Durden formed a club of disenchanted men who fought each other in order to make themselves feel more alive. Durden later started Project Mayhem, a terrorist group that conducted increasingly elaborate attacks aimed at taking down corporate America.
Kelly said the teen created his own fight club in which boys started fights in locations across the city. Shaw then took his worship of the movie a bit further: he told a friend to "watch the news over Memorial Day [25 May]" because he was about to launch his own version of Project Mayhem.
Police say Shaw picked Starbucks because it was targeted in the movie. Investigators found homemade bomb materials, a copy of Fight Club and a newspaper clipping about the attack at Shaw's home.
