Skip to Content

Wacky Apple lawsuit of the day: Apple conspiring with Italian Mafia

by Steven Sande Jul 20th 2009 at 1:30PM

Just when you think you've heard everything, along comes an Apple lawsuit that simply defies reality.

Beverly Hills, CA resident Gregory McKenna has filed a 124-page complaint in a U.S. District Court in Missouri against Apple and a group of other defendants, including the F.B.I., the St. Louis County Police Department, and an auto mechanic. Why? Well, McKenna alleges that Apple conspired with the Italian Mafia to affix special receivers to an iPod shuffle he purchased on eBay and an iPod mini purchased in an Apple Store. These receivers were allegedly used by the Mafia to transmit threatening messages to the iPods.

Okaayyyyy. So, what were these messages? Well, first there was the time in 2008 where recordings of Mafia members saying "I'm going to kill him" were played in unison with a song on McKenna's iPod mini. The most serious message was apparently transmitted not only to his iPods, but also to an iBook G4, a PowerBook G4, and three vehicles including his mother's Honda Accord.

The "message" consisted of the word "herpes" being inserted into the song "Still Tippin'" by hip-hop/rap artist Mike Jones. Mr. McKenna alleges that this was done "to humiliate, degrade, and cause emotional distress" to him. While apparently the Mafia was using the messages to coerce McKenna into doing fashion modeling for them in New York City (I am not making this up), I'd speculate that it's probably Apple's way to get him to purchase newer equipment.

[via AppleInsider]

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Humor Odds and ends Apple ipod shuffle

Just when you think you've heard everything, along comes an Apple lawsuit that simply defies reality.Beverly Hills, CA resident Gregory...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

31 Comments

Filter by:
Josh M

Back when P2P file sharing was the rage, it was not uncommon for music files to be corrupted with various sound insertions. These were usually done just to screw with people. The messages may in fact be true if he was downloading music, however they were unlikely to have been aimed directly at him.

July 21 2009 at 3:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Antonio Moro

Don't gamble with the Mafia Mr. McKenna

July 20 2009 at 5:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
grymt

This is only tragic - nothing to write about on a mac-blog.

July 20 2009 at 3:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greenscreen

nice photo illustration

July 20 2009 at 2:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Greenscreen's comment
Drifter71

Shouldn't the iPod be sleeping with the fishes.

July 20 2009 at 3:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
robinite

gee guys, please don't make fun. this guy clearly doesn't need a lawyer, he needs a doctor.

July 20 2009 at 2:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill Mac

But doesn't it sounds a little too bizarre to actually be MADE UP? I mean, what if this is a case of soooo crazy sounding that it HAS to be real?....

Just sayin.

July 20 2009 at 2:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Macopotamus

Full filling is here:

http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/missouri/moedce/4:2009cv01113/100946/1/0.pdf

He wants a total of $14.3 million.

July 20 2009 at 2:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
edgross

This is a typical type of thing that you would find associated with a person suffering from schizophrenia and it's quite sad.

July 20 2009 at 2:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to edgross's comment
Blackstar

Very sad indeed. Usually these symptoms are the result of purchasing a "Zune".

July 20 2009 at 5:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joeyjeremiah

Clearly a mental illness is involved, and agreed - it's sad. No doubt the litigant fully believes all of his claims, and it's unfortunate that this is the result.

July 20 2009 at 5:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Darren Baptiste

Sorry to kill the joke, but I can't bring myself to laugh at someone stuck inside such a deep, dark well of paranoia.

It sounds Mr. McKenna may be suffering from a mental illness. Is there some sort of advocate system in place down there that can get him assessed and helped?

July 20 2009 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Darren Baptiste's comment
Ed

Oh, Darren... No. No, there's not.

He is in Los Angeles... You can't throw a stick here without hitting someone at least as crazy as this guy. There's not an advocacy organization on the planet with enough funding to corral all the crazies: and this guy is together enough to file a legal briefing with the court, so he falls on the very high end of functionality.

He's not trying to bite people who walk past him on the street and I bet if I accidentally made eye contact with him, he wouldn't scream obscenities and spit at me even once.

July 20 2009 at 5:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave

This is actually sort if a sad article as it probably means the guy who was hearing these messages has schitzophrenia (look up the symptoms on wikipedia). The judge should order him to get some mental help.

July 20 2009 at 2:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.