Workplace Violence: Is The Recession Inspiring Worker Rage?

It was perhaps the least appropriate time to make a threat to a co-worker using a "Batman" reference. But in late July, Neil Prescott's bosses at Pitney Bowes told him over the phone that he was being fired, he apparently was livid. "I'm a Joker and I'm gonna load my guns and blow everybody up," Prescott, 28, of Crofton, Md., allegedly said. He also purportedly told his boss that he'd like to see his "brain splatter all over the sidewalk."

The threats came only a few days after a gunman said to be imitating the "Joker," burst into a midnight showing of the latest "Batman" movie in Aurora, Colo., and shot 12 people to death and wounded 58. Understandably alarmed, Prescott's supervisors immediately called police. When officers arrived at Prescott's apartment, Prescott reportedly was wearing a shirt that read, "Guns don't kill people. I do." A subsequent search uncovered several thousand rounds of ammunition and about two dozen semi-automatic rifles and pistols in his apartment, which were legally obtained, according to CBS News.