Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills

LingNoi writes "A man in Korea was found dead at his workplace Wednesday morning and his mobile phone battery was melted in his shirt pocket. No one knows for sure yet but a doctor who examined the body said, "He sustained an injury that is similar to a burn in the left chest and his ribs and spine were broken" We have heard of other dangerous battery products here on Slashdot." Update: 11/30 17:34 GMT by Z : Turns out the melted battery was the least of his worries; he was actually hit by a truck.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

In Korea, exploding cellphones are only for old people.

In a Related Story

[UncleWilly]

Just in time for Christmas!
Kevlar-Asbestos Universal Cell Phone Carrier
$29.99 plus S&H

I know what happened

[sokoban]

He had one of those phones you shake to see how much liquid is in them, which indicates battery life. His was empty, so he filled it up with gasoline.

Fan?

[Ecuador]

Are we certain he was not in a closed room with a fan [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[fireboy1919]

...unless this was a very, very small man.
His job in the quarry was to hunt rats. He has a tiny spear, and special shirt with a gigantic (for him) pocket sown into the back to carry his cellphone, which is essentially the largest thing he carries.

Did I mention that he's a minature dwarf spider monkey? Hmm...probably not important.

Beating out of your chest

[4D6963]

Laptop batteries, and now cell phone batteries? Just wait until pacemaker batteries start to explode..

I've heard this one!

[Bluesman]

The answer is, he was hit forcefully on the back with a club made of ice, which shattered. He fell on one of the shattered pieces, piercing the cell phone battery causing it to melt. The ice melted, leaving no evidence of what had happened...

Also today

[moogied]

A man was found dead in Canada. He died from apparent bullet wounds to the skull.

Police have a sony laptop in custody.

Actually

[Poromenos1]

unless this was a very, very small man.

He was actually found in the pocket of another, normal-sized man.

Remote exploit

[athloi]

In the future: hackers find out that re-programming a phone to radically fluctuate its power consumption in the same pattern that in flashing lights induces seizures in gamers, within five minutes, causes the battery to detonate and eliminate the target.

Five minutes later, government denies it has *ever* heard of such a thing, and it would never do it, even if it knew how.

Five minutes later, the reporter who broke the story dies in a mysterious cell phone explosion.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd just like to say "thank you" for posting a photo link that WASN'T goatse.

Re:differences

[noidentity]

They just left off the end of the headline. It could have been "Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills?" or even "Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills: 0" Give the hard-working Slashdot editors the benefit of the

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[bark76]

Maybe he got his clothing here. [greatpockets.com]

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Smidge204]

Have you been drinking enough Malk?

=Smidge=

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the /. meme Police. Step out of the thread sir. *Tazed*

In Soviet Russia, cell phones explode with frickin' sharks attached to their heads.

Re:I really doubt this

[Saxerman]

So now we got a huge guy theory, and a serial crusher theory. Top notch.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[cleatsupkeep]

However - we cannot always rely on Snopes - http://xkcd.com/250/ [xkcd.com]

Re:Well?

[Mister Whirly]

Which is too bad, because he missed the email warning about exploding cell phones...

Perfect xmas gift for an ex-wife.

[trolltalk.com]

"In Korea, exploding cellphones are only for old people."

In the rest of the world, they're also great stocking stuffers for ex-wives, guys who beat on women, and Darl McBride.

... and for good measure, in Soviet Russia, exploding phone disconnects YOU!

Re:Yeah... Newton's Law

[lazyforker]

Must have been a really good shirt.

Re:Actually

[kalirion]

Dennis Kucinich strikes again!

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Se7enLC]

A second doctor who could not be reached for comment concluded that the injuries sustained were consistent with those caused by leaving an electric fan [wikipedia.org] on while sleeping.

Re:Not to mention...

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

Your post is an example of why the U.S. House Says the Internet is [a] Terrorist Threat [slashdot.org]. :)

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[scottv67]

I heard that the Mossad actually used that on a Palestinian terrorist once. Presumably he said "hello", and they said "goodbye" before sending the "detonate" command....

I would have gone for something a little more clever before sending the detonation command:

PT: "Hello?"
M: "deadpalestinianterroristsayswhat"
PT:"What?" KA-BOOM!

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Enigma2175]

Here [altavista.com] is a Babelfish link for the page. My favorite quote from the page is from the "The world which it sees with statistics" sidebar - " ' The white mustache most ' 16% of the whole furnitures". I agree that the white mustache is important in home decor but 16% of the whole furnitures? Outrageous!

Exploding cellphone in New Zealand

[gringer]

An incident [nzherald.co.nz] similar to this (resulting in illness, rather than death) happened in New Zealand recently.

I thought something had fallen off a table but there was a foul stink. I woke up and realised the room was very smoky and there was a very strong smell of electrical burning.... It had fallen onto the floor in three pieces. There were burn patches on the carpet so it looked like the phone had jumped from one spot to another.

Given comments about cellphones being a bit like grenades, the way he dealt with the situation was entirely reasonable. He threw the (grenade|battery) out the window before it could do more damage.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[grendelkhan]

Fan death is no joke. When I lived in Korea, old people without air conditioning would die from fan death in the dead of summer every year. I know some people may scoff and say it was heat stroke, but I KNOW Better. I've seen fan death on the news with my own eyes.