Olivia Retter purchased a New Look iPhone case for her iPhone 5c. Sadly, the permanent scar the 9-year-old girl got from it wasn’t quite the “new look” she was going for.
The Daily Mail shares the gory details of how this little girl’s simple iPhone case ended up resulting in a permanent chemical burn:
The decorative protective covering nine-year-old Olivia Retter used to guard her phone burst open while she was fast asleep in bed.
Bought at New Look, the plastic backing was similar to snow globe, containing a thick liquid that allowed glitter sparkles and unicorn and rainbow shapes to move around when shaken.
The decorative protective covering nine-year-old Olivia Retter… used to guard her phone burst open while she was fast asleep in bed
The chemical transferred onto the young girl’s leg – burning the shape of the phone into her skin as she slept
The iPhone case cost £5.99, or about $8.66. According to Olivia’s mother, no safety warning was displayed on the case, but despite this, doctors have told her that the “severe chemical burn” will scar Olivia’s leg for life.
New Look says it’s investigating the claims, but even so, they’ve told stores to stop selling the cases immediately.
Worried about this happening to you? This is exactly why Apple certifies iPhone cases. Don’t go cheap: Buy something with Apple’s seal of approval on it.
Source: The Daily Mail
Via: App Advice
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
11 responses to “Leaking iPhone case gives 9-year-old girl an iPhone-shaped scar”
Her college and grad school are now paid for.
This is why, as much as possible, you should avoid buying cheap crap.
If you can afford an iPhone, surely you can afford a higher quality case.
To be fair, she probably bought it for the glitter and unicorns, not the price. Besides, isn’t it reasonable to expect that products shouldn’t give us chemical burns, no matter how cheap?
“while she was fast asleep in bed” so would she have avoided the burn by falling asleep slower?
Cruel joke… good one though
that’s a true Apple fan… forget a tattoo of a iPhone…. lets jump straight to scarification to show your love for Apple… but have to agree with Aardman…. why spend $200 on a iPhone and protect it with a $5 case made cheaply by some underpaid factory worker in another part of the world !
Whilst a lot of people are saying why did she buy cheap, she bought it from Newlook which is a UK high street store not some cheap back alley phone cover sales guy. Regardless of price it should be QC checked. Newlook need to vet their suppliers and only supply decent stuff to its customers. Any product has a right to fail and be crap but NOT cause harm if it does so!.
The article doesn’t explain why she was sleeping with her phone. WTF?
It’s just an iScar.
While I definitely am not saying she deserved it, when did nine year old children start sleeping with their phones?! …Or someone of any age really?
It’s bad enough, but at least keep it on your bedside table.
i`ve said this before and im saying it again, Do NOT sleep with a lithium powered device next to you.