Photo: Denver Post / Helen H. Richardson
A Colorado teenager was struck by lightning while mowing the lawn and listening to his iPod, according to the Denver Post. It appears the lightning struck his iPod and fried the earbud wires, severely burning the inside of his ears. Ouch. The paper reports:
Jason Bunch was listening to Metallica on his iPod while mowing the lawn outside his Castle Rock home Sunday afternoon when lightning hit him.
The last thing the 17-year-old remembers was that a storm was coming from the north and he had only about 15 minutes before he should go inside.
Next thing he knew, he was in his bed, bleeding from his ears and vomiting. He was barefoot and had taken off his burned T-shirt and gym shorts. He doesn’t know how he got back in the house.
…
Bunch’s ears were burned on the inside, and he’s lost some hearing, mostly on the right side. His hair was singed.
His face, chest, hands and right leg have freckle-size welts on them as if buckshot had come from inside his body out.
The wounds follow the line of his iPod, from his ears down his right side to his hip, where he was carrying the device. The iPod has a hole in the back, and the earbuds dissolved into green threads.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
32 responses to “What’s worse, Metallica or Lightning?”
He was probably listening to Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning”.
That’s it! i’m never listening to my iPod in a thunderstorm ever again!
WTF?! Dude was mowing the lawn in the middle of a lightening storm? Darwin award anyone?
I guess he was trying to “ride the lightning” ;P
Had it not been listening to his iPod the kid wouldn’t be alive. The wires conducted the currant away from his heart. Lucky!
Yay! He shouldn’t listen to iPod in the storm!
Gimme fuel gimme fire, i guess he got what he asked for..
(Metallica – Fuel)
Actually, I read an article that says he was listening to “Metal Militia” off of “Kill ‘Em All.” Must be a real fan!
i nominate this idiot for a darwin award
lol “I guess he was trying to “ride the lightning†;P”
From now on he’ll only listen to classical music..
wow….i had a dream that happen 2 me but not that bad…damn bro im sorry…..that sucks soo bad….hell metallica rules tho….but hey its all god….look at the bright side… ure not hospitlized right?
well, a lesson 2 those who listen 2 ipods in the rain
peter
My fellow humans are asholes.
I wish all the best to this young man that was so badly burned.
Why do you laugh about him and his accident?
You know his family’s going to sue Apple, haha. “Apple should have foreseen the possibility that a lightning strike could do this and put a warning in the instructions!” He looks pretty cute, too, minus the scorch marks on his face and ear.
Yeah, WTF is right! Think about how loud a lawnmower is. Anyone try listening to music with earbuds WHILE USING A LAWNMOWER? I don’t even think the earbuds can withstand that sort of blast.
Jeeze… sure this isn’t fake?
What I’d like to know (from a physicist or maybe a meteorologist?) is did the iPod saved this guys life? It looks like the ear bud’s wires conducted the bolt away from his head and torso. From what I’ve read it’s the shot through the heart that’s often the fatal blow, but this may have redirected the charge.
I’m gonna make sure I am wearing my iPod when I mow the lawn (especially in a thunderstorm!)
u dumb idiot, i feel very sorry for you though…