Worst/Best Story of Electronics Destruction

[Backroads]

Yesterday my 4-year-old daughter chucked my phone out the car window whilst the car moved at 60 mph.

Any interesting electronics destruction stories?

[Guest]

One night, my wife and I were watching Avatar: the Last Airbender together.  This was in the days before Roku, so we had a full computer in our living room that we were using to stream Netflix or whatever.  I had to get up and do something.  When coming back, I accidentally kicked my cat's water bowl, and water went flying all over the place and drenched my wife's computer.  It buzzed, then completely stopped working.  Damage was $1300.

[anatess2]

My kid got a D in a progress report, so my husband took his phone while we were driving around and chucked it out the window, then went back and ran over it.

In another incident, the other kid got a D, we were at home, so my husband took his phone, threw it on the floor and shattered it.  What's interesting about this is - the phone was in an Otterbox.

Needless to say, my husband eventually ended up getting them replacement phones (which basically means I get a new phone and they get my old phone, yeay for me) but my kids learned to make sure they have a solid reason and plan of action for a D on their progress reports...

But, that's not my most memorable electronic destruction story involving my kids - when my kid was about 18 months old, he took my phone (this was still the age of the flip phone) and flushed it down the toilet waving bah-bye.  That was an expensive flush - had to hire the plumber to clear the pipe.  Several duplo pieces came up with the phone...

[jerome1232]

We were moving into a new apartment, I held a Wii remote by the cord that you slip around your wrist, gave it two spins and tossed it to my wife. It landed on the couch like I intended but it had a bit more speed than I meant to put into it. It bounced off of the couch cushion and hit the TV hard breaking the LCD screen inside.

My wife wasn't very amused.

[Guest MormonGator]

I was playing NCAA Football once against a good friend of mine. In the fourth quarter I was up 21-17 and getting really obnoxious about it. Then my friend threw a touchdown pass and it ended up winning the game. I threw the controller against the TV in anger/frustration/misery/existential regret and the tv fell down and broke. It cost me a controller and a tv.   

[beefche]

1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

My kid got a D in a progress report, so my husband took his phone while we were driving around and chucked it out the window, then went back and ran over it.

In another incident, the other kid got a D, we were at home, so my husband took his phone, threw it on the floor and shattered it.  What's interesting about this is - the phone was in an Otterbox.

Needless to say, my husband eventually ended up getting them replacement phones (which basically means I get a new phone and they get my old phone, yeay for me) but my kids learned to make sure they have a solid reason and plan of action for a D on their progress reports...

 

Why destroy them? Why not just take them, hide them and then return them when punishment time is over??

[Bini]

A friend of mine threw his phone into the firepit with some wood he'd tossed. Couldn't save it. It was gone in the blaze.

[mirkwood]

I don't have a good electronics story.  I did once wire the central air motor backwards...

[Guest]

My brother-in-law got fed up with a buggy old iPad so he took it out back and put it out of his misery with a shotgun.

[Guest]

My friend had a phone that seemed indestructible.  

He dropped it one day.  No signs that anything was bad.

He dropped it another day.  Housing fell apart.  He put it back together.  No signs of anything wrong.

He dropped it another day.  Housing fell apart.  Battery fell out.  No signs of anything wrong.

He was thinking about getting a new phone.  He thought he'd have fun with it and threw it on the ground.  Fell completely apart.  Glass cracked.  But remembering the past history, he put it back together.  Apart from the cracked screen, nothing seemed to be wrong with it.

He kept it as a backup phone.  Sometime later, he and a friend were talking about dropped phones.  He pulled his old phone out.  Told of the history.  Threw it against the wall as hard as he could.  Hit the wall, dropped on the floor, put it back together.  It worked fine.  They both took turns repeating the damage testing at least a dozen times each.  The phone operated every single time.

But he did end up throwing it away eventually.

[Guest]

Imagine my reactions:

14 hours ago, MormonGator said:

I was playing NCAA Football once against a good friend of mine. In the fourth quarter I was up 21-17 and getting really obnoxious about it. Then my friend threw a touchdown pass and it ended up winning the game.

Wow!  Really?  I didn't know you were such an athlete.

14 hours ago, MormonGator said:

I threw the controller against the TV in anger/frustration/misery/existential regret and the tv fell down and broke. It cost me a controller and a tv.   

DOH!  Thanks for leading me on.

[anatess2]

14 hours ago, beefche said:

Why destroy them? Why not just take them, hide them and then return them when punishment time is over??

My husband gets dramatic when it comes to kids' grades...    A is awesome, B is bad, C is catastrophic, D is death of your phone.  LOL!

 

 

 

[Guest MormonGator]

3 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Wow!  Really?  I didn't know you were such an athlete.

With my athletic ability, I wouldn't get the water boy job at the local high school. 

[anatess2]

On 6/7/2017 at 11:56 AM, MormonGator said:

With my athletic ability, I wouldn't get the water boy job at the local high school. 

You sell yourself too short.  Betcha you'd rock it with Gatorade.

[Blackmarch]

On June 6, 2017 at 3:26 PM, Backroads said:

Yesterday my 4-year-old daughter chucked my phone out the car window whilst the car moved at 60 mph.

Any interesting electronics destruction stories?

The house literally decided to take a dump on my computer. (upstairs bathroom flooded, and drained ont o my desk, right where the comp was)

[Jamie123]

On 6/6/2017 at 10:41 PM, anatess2 said:

My kid got a D in a progress report, so my husband took his phone while we were driving around and chucked it out the window, then went back and ran over it.

In another incident, the other kid got a D, we were at home, so my husband took his phone, threw it on the floor and shattered it.  What's interesting about this is - the phone was in an Otterbox.

Needless to say, my husband eventually ended up getting them replacement phones (which basically means I get a new phone and they get my old phone, yeay for me) but my kids learned to make sure they have a solid reason and plan of action for a D on their progress reports...

But, that's not my most memorable electronic destruction story involving my kids - when my kid was about 18 months old, he took my phone (this was still the age of the flip phone) and flushed it down the toilet waving bah-bye.  That was an expensive flush - had to hire the plumber to clear the pipe.  Several duplo pieces came up with the phone...

What does he do when they get an A? Buy them a Cray supercomputer?

[Jamie123]

On 6/7/2017 at 2:50 PM, anatess2 said:

My husband gets dramatic when it comes to kids' grades...    A is awesome, B is bad, C is catastrophic, D is death of your phone.  LOL!

And E is death of YOU?

Edited June 16, 2017 by Jamie123

[Jamie123]

On 6/6/2017 at 10:41 PM, anatess2 said:

...my kids learned to make sure they have a solid reason and plan of action for a D on their progress reports...

 

As a kid, I found the best plan was to give them your report card and - before they've had time to read it - leave the house on some urgent pretext. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT return for at least two hours. By that time they have (hopefully) calmed down somewhat. 

[anatess2]

3 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

As a kid, I found the best plan was to give them your report card and - before they've had time to read it - leave the house on some urgent pretext. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT return for at least two hours. By that time they have (hopefully) calmed down somewhat. 

Except, my husband will still break your phone.  Calmly.  It's that shock of seeing the death throes of your beloved electronic device that you thought will never die because... surely dad won't break a $500 phone, right?   Taking the phone away, selling it, etc., doesn't have that same effect - it gives your psyche that feeling of, it's not so bad, I can win the phone back or something.  And yeah, it hurts.  Not just my kid, but us too!  I'm like, dangit.  That thing was 10 hours of working my bum off!

[anatess2]

3 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

And E is death of YOU?

There's no E (because non-academic classes use E for Excellent, S for Satisfactory, etc.)... F is Find new parents.  Hah hah.

[The Folk Prophet]

I ran over my brand new laptop once. About a month old, was coming out from a school event with a bunch of bags. Stupidly put my laptop bag down leaning against the car tire as I loaded the other bags into the back, then jumped in the truck and took off. Bump, bump.

[NeuroTypical]

A kid had a fun little thing that would giggle when you pressed the button.  An electronic clown or some such.

One night at like 2AM, it started going off on its own.  Even worse, the batteries were going dead, so the giggling was slower and diabolical.  It was freaking everyone out.  It was a cheap thing, not meant to have batteries replaced, so there wasn't any good way to remove the batteries.

So I took it out to the carport and beat it to death with a 4 lb sledge mallet.  Its evil laughter continued for the first several blows.  Then on the third blow, it gave a high-pitched whine and went dead, in several pieces.

It did not return the next day, so no haunting or supernatural or anything like that.  Good old bashing it to death with a hammer worked fine.