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Failed Facebook party leads to unfriending, arson

Bad things can happen when you post party invites on Facebook.In the most notorious cases, chaos ensued after Facebook Event invites resulted in way too many guests. Just this summer, a German teen's "sweet 16" party turned sour when she neglected to mark the Facebook Event "private." More than 1,600 "guests" showed up, which led to 100 cops being sent in to quell the crowd. The year prior, a
Jennifer \"Jen\" Harris
Jennifer \"Jen\" HarrisPolk County Jail / Today

Bad things can happen when you post party invites on Facebook.

In the most notorious cases, chaos ensued after Facebook Event invites resulted in way too many guests. Just this summer, a German teen's "sweet 16" party turned sour when she neglected to mark the Facebook Event "private." More than 1,600 "guests" showed up, which led to 100 cops being sent in to quell the crowd

The year prior, a teen in England lost her computer privileges when more than 21,000 Facebook users RSVP'd to a Facebook Event she posted for her 15th birthday. That party was cancelled, but cops were on alert in case a crowd did show up, and with good cause. Earlier that year, another UK teen's open invite on Facebook resulted in 50 unwanted guests who trashed her parents' home.

Here in the U.S., a Facebook party invite may have led to a burned-down garage — and a bitter Facebook unfriending — not because too many people showed up. Rather, hardly anybody RSVP'd at all.

Also, it involves "grownups."

Jennifer Christine Harris, 30, is being held on $100,000 bond for a charge of first-degree arson in Des Moines, Iowa's Polk County Jail following an Oct. 27 fire that broke out in the garage of Harris' former BFF Nikki Rasmussen and her husband, Jim, When officers asked Jim who might want to hurt his family, it was Jennifer "Jen" Harris — his wife's longtime friend and maid of honor at their wedding — who came to mind, the Des Moines Register reports.

"The two are no longer friends due to a dispute over Facebook," describes the police report. "According to Nikki, Jen is angry with her because she ended their friendship on Facebook." In fact, Nikki didn't just unfriend Jen, she blocked her as well.

So what went so horribly wrong?

It all started when "Jen asked Nikki to create an event on Facebook for a party," for her birthday, the Register reports. Which Nikki did. Alas, "there were a lot of 'declines,' " to the Facebook invite, and things went south from there.

According to Nikki, there "just wasn't enough time" to plan the party. Still, Jen "said horrible things about me on Facebook," Nikki told the Register. "I unfriended her and blocked her so I couldn’t see what she was saying. But we had mutual friends who could see it."

Perhaps those mutual friends were the selfless, helpful sort you find in high school, the kind who shared whatever allegedly horrible things Jen continued to say about her former BFF on Facebook, because you know that always works out well for all parties involved:

The report goes on to mention a "fake Facebook account." But Police Detective Jack Kamerick said only that it involved "Facebook issues and kept building and building and text messages that were sent."

Police say an investigation supports that suspicion.

No word yet on Jen's side of the story about the fire that collapsed the garage roof, or the cars it landed on — not to mention the other items stored there. But it looks like the party's a bust.

via DesMoinesRegister.com

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Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or FacebookAlso, Google+.