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Today's lesson: don't mow the lawn while listening to your iPod during a lightning storm

The Denver Post is reporting that Bunch, a 17-year-old teenager in Castle Rock, CO, was struck by lightning while mowing the lawn and listening to his iPod. While scientists aren't laying any money down on how likely it is that lightning sought out the teenager's iPod, the boy and his mother suspect Apple's little white player acted as a sort of  lightning rod in this most unfortunate of accidents. The strike traveled all the way down his earbuds, burning his ears and the side of his face, causing Bunch to lose some of his hearing.

All things considered, Bunch and his mother are just happy that he is alive.

[via iLounge]

Thanks Gidge.

The Denver Post is reporting that Bunch, a 17-year-old teenager in Castle Rock, CO, was struck by lightning while mowing the lawn and...
 

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Jolene

I was almost hit by lightning but ha I wanted it to!
anyway get better dude and no more mowin' the lawn when theres a frickin' lightning storm!8P

July 11 2006 at 4:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
I,Robot

@bryan

Hold on my man... don't EVEN TRY to lump all Americans as being stupid -- enough to;
1.) Live in red neck, Colorado.
2.) Mow the grass in the middle of a thunderstorm.
3.) Hold on to a huge metal conductor in the middle of a field.

I'm sorry the poor bastard is deaf, but... didn't his mom send him to school? Don't they have SCIENCE in Colorado? We'll jump over the most obvious point that “lightning is attracted to metal”, and move on to the second point which is, wasn't it raining outside? Why in the hell would ANYBODY be mowing the grass in the rain?

Good luck, trying to sue Apple on this one. Jobs' (pack of wolves) Lawyers will have these 2 for lunch, right after they stop laughing.

July 10 2006 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric

even a gasoline engine produces electricity. It is what fires the spark plug. More than anything being the tallest object in an open area (lawn) is most likely the reason he got struck. There have been documented cases of people being hit by lightening and the rivits anf buttons of their jeans being the exit point and the only place they got burned.

July 10 2006 at 10:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Julius

Ride The Lightning? poor boy, but thanks God he´s alive to tell it, could happen to anyone, anywhere....

July 10 2006 at 7:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matthew Dinmore

Mom's a bit ignorant; maybe she should check out the Wikipedia article on lightning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning , especially the business about the "tall, grounded object." Hmmm... that describes (a) and iPod or (b) Bunch. They should be thanking Apple -- the iPod almost certainly provided the "path of least resistance" between Bunch's butt and head...

July 08 2006 at 1:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lee

I hope the apple care protection plans cover this in the future. It is an obvious issue which needs to be addressed promptly.

I have also heard that ipods have been implicated with petrol station freak fires.

it could be obvious to say, ipod is the devils portable music player of choice.

! be careful when listening to your ipod.. as your number might come up..

July 08 2006 at 4:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DJ

Yeah, it may be his own fault for mowing the lawn during a thunderstorm but I still feel sorry for the guy. He got hit by lightning for cryin out loud. I can't understand why alot of these commenters are being pretty cruel about what happened. There are more important things to rant about.

July 08 2006 at 2:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
XIV

People, people, see it that way : The ipod is so damn simple, even idiots can use it :D

July 07 2006 at 6:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wheels

"could we, perhaps, spare at least a little bit of sympathy for our poor, senseless-and-now-equilibriumless, redneck friend?"

Umm, L'me think..................No. Why encourage stupidity?

July 07 2006 at 5:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alexey Vyskubov

Looks like boy and his mother need to read some basic physics book. And it seems that iPod saved the life of the guy.

July 07 2006 at 5:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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