NYC explosion linked to movie 'Fight Club'

NEW YORK, July 16 (UPI) -- A 17-year-old boy preoccupied with the movie "Fight Club" has been charged with setting off a homemade bomb outside a New York coffee shop, police say.

Kyle Shaw, 17, was arrested and charged in the Memorial Day explosion, which shattered two windows at an Upper East Side Starbucks and blew a hole in a bench, the New York Post reported Thursday. No one was injured.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Shaw informed a friend he was starting a "Project Mayhem," an anti-consumerist campaign patterned after one in "Fight Club," in which the protagonist destroys corporate property.

The violent campaign in the 1999 film includes an act of sabotage against a coffee shop.

Kelly faces charges of arson, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon.

Police said there was no connection between the Memorial Day blast and prior explosions such as the 2008 bombing of the Times Square Army recruiting center.