Mobile Mania

The mother of a kid living in Cincinnati, Ohio is suing Apple and 10 unnamed retail employees from the Apple Store in Kenwood over an iPod touch that allegedly exploded in the child's pocket. According to the complaint filed yesterday in the Southern District of Ohio, the plaintiff had the "iTouch" (as the lawsuit refers to it) in his pocket during school when the unfortunate accident happened, resulting in hospital bills and other monetary losses thanks to the disintegration of the iPod touch and, well, the kid's clothes.

As the story goes, the iPod touch was sitting in the "off" position when it unexpectedly popped and caused the kid to feel a burning sensation. At that time, he stood up and noticed that his pants were, in fact, on fire. "Plaintiff A.V. immediately ran to the bathroom and took off his burning pants with the assistance of a friend," reads the complaint. "On said date and at said time, the Apple iTouch had burned through Plaintiff A.V.'s pants pocket and melted through his nylon/spandex underwear, burning his leg."



Upon learning these facts, much of the staff here at Ars took an inordinate amount of time out of our busy day to discuss whether this was a reasonable possibility. The lowest melting point of nylon is approximately 374 degrees Fahrenheit—a temperature that an iPod touch could not reasonably reach without you noticing beforehand (that's hotter than the temperature it takes to fry an egg, by the way). However, because the lawsuit claims there was fire involved, all bets have to be off. Fire is most definitely hot enough to melt nylon, and if there was an explosion to cause the "pop," then there may not have been a way for the kid to notice the heat beforehand.



The plaintiff went directly to the doctor, where he was declared to have received second degree burns to his leg. "He continues to suffer from both physical and mental conditions which will cause him to suffer pain, mental distress, emotional distress, and otherwise for the rest of his life," reads the lawsuit. The plaintiff's mother says that the family was not warned in advance of the potential risk that the "iTouch" would cause serious bodily injury, and Apple's 10 retail employees had a duty to not only test for this, but also warn customers.

As a result, Apple and the retail employees are accused of gross negligence and recklessness, as they supposedly conducted themselves maliciously and fraudulently when selling the iTouch. The mother asking for compensatory damages of more than $75,000 plus punitive damages of more than $75,000 and attorney fees.

We just hope that Apple's insurance includes something about underwear meltage.