Drunk Mortgage Worker Shoots Computer Server; Groundswell of Popular Support Absent

The Deseret News has reported that a 23-year-old mortgage worker at RANLife Home Loans in Salt Lake City attended a concert after work one night, got drunk, went back the office, and shot the company's $100,000 server with a .45-caliber handgun. Although the assailant, Joshua Lee Campbell, told police someone had stolen his gun and threatened to kill him, a coworker said she found him passed out next to the server with a gun in his hand.

Campbell has been charged with second-degree felony criminal mischief, carrying a dangerous weapon while under the influence of alcohol and giving false information to a law enforcement officer, both class B misdemeanors, and intoxication, a class C misdemeanor.

Unlike Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant whose workplace hissy fit (he cursed out a passenger who had hit him in the head with a piece of luggage on a plane's PA, grabbed two beers and jumped out of the aircraft via the emergency slide) won him thousands of fans and supporters who related to his "I'm not going to take it any more" attitude, reactions to Campbell's case have been mixed. Geek.com commented, "Getting drunk and heading back to your place of work is never going to turn out well." Tom's Hardware illustrated its version of the story with a photo of a monkey in a business suit holding a gun.

British readers of the irreverent U.K. technology website The Register were far more sympathetic. Wommit wrote in, "Just who hasn't wanted to 'pop a cap' into a server now and then?" Arkasha posted, "For a server that's been a particular pain in the arse I can recomend hanging, drawing and quartering. Much more satisfying...." Anonymous Coward wrote, "We have all done it or wanted to. I did pack an Epson printer with fireworks once and b-l-e-w it up whilst on the phone to support. I had a cordless phone and took it outside......."

But folks, satisfying as it might sound, please don't try this at home. Try taking your server to therapy and working out your differences in a calm, civilized manner. If that doesn't work, a swift kick when no one is looking should do the trick.