“I was filling my car up with gas in the sharp cold gusting winds we’ve had here in Kansas lately. I had on a light jacket and as I was getting out of the car to go around and begin pumping, I figured I’d put on my heavy winter coat. I took my phone out of my lightweight jacket and set it on the trunk of my car and switched to my heavier coat. I went inside to prepay for gas, forgetting all about my phone. When I came back out, I pumped my gas, walked around the front of my car, got back in and drove off,” Mike Beauchamp reports via Flickr.
“I was traveling down the interstate when this happened. The gas station I stopped at was a little rest area in the middle of the turnpike. So as I left, I merged back onto the highway, accelerated hard, turned up the stereo, and got moving. About 5 minutes later, I reached for my phone, but couldn’t feel it. Then it hit me. I’d forgotten to grab it off the back of my car when I was filling up at the gas station. A feeling of panic and anger washed over me instantly and I started screaming and yelling in my empty car. Because I was driving on a toll-road, there was no way to turn around and just go back. I had to drive another 15 miles to the next exit, pay my toll, get back on the highway, and race the 20 miles back to the rest stop,” Beauchamp reports.
“I pulled back up to the pump I filled up at but there was no sign of my phone. I remembered a lady filling up next to me in a silver BMW – but she was long gone. My first move was to go inside and ask if she or anyone else had turned it in. No such luck. I scoured the parking lot and on-ramp I used to get back on the highway – no sign of the phone anywhere. After about 30 minutes of searching, I finally gave up. It was 11pm and it was 19 degrees outside. I was exhausted, cold, angry, frustrated, and just decided I’d have to start using the Treo 750 I had as a backup,” Beauchamp reports.
“As I slowly merged back onto the highway, I kept my eyes open for the remote possibility that the phone had stayed on my car for a longer distance than what I’d searched on foot. Still, no luck. I got up to speed, giving up for good, and about that time (1/4 mile from the gas station) I saw a glimmering light from the lane next to me. As I sped past the object, I knew it was my phone – still alive and working! I slammed on the brakes and pulled over, waiting for the passing cars and trucks to go by so I could run across 2 lanes of 75mph traffic to retrieve my poor phone. As the last pair of headlights approached, the semi got over to the far outside lane because he saw me standing on the side of the road. I knew this was trouble. As I watched helplessly from the shoulder, the semi plowed my phone at full speed, throwing it to the ditch on the other side of the highway. At this point, I figured I’d retrieve it just for the purpose of seeing the crushed iPhone in disarray, mangled and crunched lifeless in the grass,” Beauchamp reports.
Beauchamp reports, “Much to my surprise, as I approached, I heard the familiar sound of my ringtone — the iPhone was alive and ringing! As I picked it up and cradled it gently in my hands, I saw the screen displaying my caller ID — the screen still worked! I slid my finger gently over the answer slide and paused as I held the tattered and torn device to my ear — my heart must have skipped a beat when I heard my mom’s voice at the other end of the phone — the phone still worked! I ran back to my car and sat on the side of the road for about 15 minutes inspecting it, testing it, and looking it over — how in the hell had it survived being trounced by an 18-wheeler at 70mph?!?”
Beauchamp reports, “One day later as I’m writing this, I don’t have an answer to that question. It makes and receives calls, sends and receives text messages, browses the internet, plays music from the iPod feature, connects to my wi-fi network, syncs with my computer, and charges the battery. The camera even takes perfect pictures still! I’ve spoken with Apple’s customer relations department – they’re interested in using it in an iPhone commercial.”
Full article, with more photos, here.
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Logan” for the heads up.]
THAT’S a commercial! And one very snappy iPhone.
gives new meaning to “road warrior”
As neat as such a commercial would be, I can’t see it happening.
Just imagine: an iPhone commercial alluding to how hardy it is, and then the lawsuits from asswipes who either deliberately try damaging their iPhone, or those who think that just because *one* managed to survive being run over, that *theirs* should’ve survived as well, but didn’t.
You can’t even joke in American commercials–some idiot sued Coke or Pepsi some years ago because a Harrier jet was indicated as a prize if you collected enough bottle cap liners, even though a “just kidding” was added in fine print.
Amazing, but in some ways not surprising for our tuff lil’ puppy
If you’ve seen the ‘Will It Blend’ demo – took a while to chew it up
BC
¡Santa caca!
I sat my iPhone on the roof of my Corvette and later drove over it as I pulled out of my driveway.
The bottom plastic was crushed open and the screen was cracked like thin ice, but the iPhone still works including the touch screen.
The touch screen is a little rough on the fingers with all the broken glass it works and charges.
Well, if they did decide to do a commercial, I don’t think they would show his home screen…..
If there is a “whisper campaign” regarding the quality of Apple’s products, this should help shut them up.
——RM
” . . . how in the hell had it survived being trounced by an 18-wheeler at 70mph?!?”
Secret alien technology. The Windows Immobile wannabes will always be poor imitations. Where are those psychotic frog molesters now that couldn’t stop whining about the iPhone’s glass getting scratched?
“I don’t think they would show his home screen…..”
Excellent point.
Yellow Flags:
Because I was driving on a toll-road, there was no way to turn around and just go back. I had to drive another 15 miles to the next exit, pay my toll, get back on the highway, and race the 20 miles back to the rest stop,” Beauchamp reports.
Toll roads pretty much never have the same rest stop on both sides. That’s because people could then get back going the other direction and screw up the system. So he would have had to get off, pay the toll, get back on going the other way, get back off, pay the toll, then get back on going the way he was in the first place. So this article already sounds screwy and made up.
about that time (1/4 mile from the gas station) I saw a glimmering light from the lane next to me. As I sped past the object, I knew it was my phone – still alive and working!
Um, the iPhone was still on? Is that what he means? Because it has an auto power off. If he means glimmering like in headlights, okay maybe, but you’d’a thought he’d’a said that. If he means the screen was On, I don’t believe it.
“Much to my surprise, as I approached, I heard the familiar sound of my ringtone — the iPhone was alive and ringing! As I picked it up and cradled it gently in my hands, I saw the screen displaying my caller ID — the screen still worked! I slid my finger gently over the answer slide and paused as I held the tattered and torn device to my ear — my heart must have skipped a beat when I heard my mom’s voice at the other end of the phone
Riiiight. Are you sure the call wasn’t from a little girl with cancer who badly needed your bone marrow that very night or else she would have died?
Sorry folks, I don’t buy it.
I have a good friend who bought a Titanium Powerbook a few years ago. He’s hard on computers – over the next couple years he dropped it down a flight of stairs and ran over it in an ambulance. It had scars from both, but still ran just fine — the thing that finally forced him to replace it was that it got stolen.
Roll on highway, roll on along,
Roll on daddy till you get back home,
Roll on family, roll on crew,
Roll on mamma, Like I asked ya ta do,
And roll on 18 wheeler, Roll on (shout) Roll On!!
Well it Monday mornin’ he’s kissing mamma goodbye,
He’s up an gone with the sun,
Daddy drives and 18 wheeler, and he’s off on a midwest run,
And three sad faces gather ’round mamma,
They ask her when daddy’s comin’ home,
Daddy drives and 18 wheeler,
And they sure miss him when he’s gone, Spoken (yeah they do)
Ah, but he calls them every night and tells ’em that he loves them,
He taught them this song ta sing,
(Chorus)
Roll on highway, roll on along,
Roll on daddy till you get back home,
Roll on family, roll on crew,
Roll on mamma, Like I asked ya ta do,
And roll on 18 wheeler, Roll on (shout) Roll On!!
Well it’s wednsday evenin’,
Mamma’s waitin’ by the phone,
It rings but it’s not his voice,
Seems the highway patrol has found a jack-knifed rig,
In a snow bank in Illinois,
But the driver was missin’ and the search had been abandoned,
‘Cause the weather had everything stalled,
And they had checked all the houses,
And the local motels,
When they had some more news they’d call,
And she told them when they found him, to tell him,
That she loved him, and she hung up the phone singin’
(Chorus)
Roll on highway, roll on along,
Roll on daddy till you get back home,
Roll on family, roll on crew,
Roll on mamma, Like I asked ya ta do,
And roll on 18 wheeler, Roll on.
Mamma, and the children will be waiting up all night long,
Thinkin; nothin’ but the worst is comin’,
With the ringin’ of the telephone,
Whow !!, But the man up stairs was listnin’,
When mamma ask’d ‘im ta bring daddy home,
And when the call came in, it was daddy on his iPhone
Can you hear me NOW????
It’s the inner adamantium skeleton.
The commercial angle is Customer relations why of giving him a new phone and writing the old one off as an advertising expense. They keep a happy customer happy and it’s good promotion. With the internet his story & pictures are worth the price of new phone to Apple.
Don’t expect to see a real commercial featuring his phone, Though it might end up is some Apple internal/reseller publications.
Shogun makes excellent points and I’d like to subscribe to his newsletter.
It’s very possible he ran over it himself and posted the story and photos for attention.
Beauchamp? Shouldn’t that be Beauchomp?
@ FreddyThePig
That was priceless, I’m still laughing!!!!!
Zune Tang? C’mon don’t hold back!!
Apple should offer that ‘run over’ look as a finish option.
@ FreddyThePig, okay, that made me laugh out loud! Maybe the Troll likey now?
FTP-yes, that was good.
Another theory: his girlfriend got fed up with his attention and fingers being on the iPhone and threw the damn thing in the road.
The story was made up for his wife.
The “call” from Mom was to remind both of an impending inheritance….
Maybe it did fall off the car, maybe the draft of the semi blew it to the side of the road. But the semi actually ran over it and it still works?
Hmmmmm….doubtful.
Not a scratch on the screen, but the back is all scratched up…?
Two days ago I dropped mine in to a bowl of water, it was fully submerged for a half a second. There was no immediate effect then 5 minutes later the screen faded out and I had no control over it for a few minutes. I put it on the radiator to dry out but a couple of minutes later it started ringing. I’ve been using it since then as if nothing had happened. It’s such a tough little device and a huge credit to Apple for making it so. It’s built to last, definitely.
Kansas wind sucks. I live here and it is terrible.
@Ampar
Rigid construction helps. If it had removable battery it would dead as rock. Phones that have slide off covers for battery break in to pieces if they drop 75cm (from your hand to the ground).
“Kansas wind sucks.”
Didn’t someone make a movie about that with a girl and her little dog?
Amp
Maybe you are thinking of “Cider House Rules” which include passages about a girl and her pony……..
What kind of a dumb sh1t puts a $500+ phone on the back of their car… even for a split second? Seriously.
I ran over my Titanium PowerBook with my Navigator, and except for the broken screen, everything else worked. Only time i ever bought an extended warranty (from CompUSA) and they had to replace the screen.
What the hell are you talking about?
A girl sucking her little dog in the wind?
You pervert.
@Towertone
I think Ampar is referring to Dorothy and Toto in the Wizard of Oz being carried away in a tornado.
Having had my iPhone fall out of my pocket while ice skating and see it shoot across the Ice Rink much faster than me with no ill effects, I can believe this.
I have also seen rack mounted servers still start up once power has been reconnected after an IRA bomb had destroyed the building back in the 80’s. If built right in the first place things can be really tough.
Pay your taxes on time, and they wouldn’t have to blow up your building.
Oh, wait, you said IRA…….
TT: Or maybe someone doesn’t care for saxophonist Larry Baker.
@Ampar: You’re probably thinking of that whore Mel.
Incredible testimony!
Probably my failing eyesight, but it wasn’t clear to me that the 18 wheeler actually rolled over it or not. These trucks push enough wind to push small cars off of the road without actually touching them so it seems entirely possible that the iPhone was tossed into the ditch from the displaced wind as opposed to being flicked into the ditch after being actually run over be one or more of the truck tires.
Sorry for the hair-splitting but a similar personal experience with a Seiko wrist watch makes me curious. Long story shorter, I watched a Seiko wrist watch actually get rolled over by a full sized garbage truck (both outside tires of the two rear axles), and when I went to pick it up the crystal was cracked and the watch was still working, and continued to work for about eight more years, even underwater with a cracked crystal. It finally stopped working when the solar-rechargeable battery died and wouldn’t keep a charge.
By the way it wasn’t my watch, I just happened to notice it as the garbage truck pulled away from the curb and rolled over it.
Hormel?
now we’re talking meat packers again?….
Fen
Thanks….it was a play on characters.
“These trucks push enough wind to push small cars off of the road without actually touching them . . .”
Coincidentally, most truckers break enough wind to push small cars off of the road without actually touching them. That’s not an air horn, you know.
@Shogun:
I’ve seen plenty of rest stops where it’s shared between sides of the road. There are some in IL (toll roads), I believe a few in Wisconsin (these are non-toll though) as well. Depends on where you live I guess. The over-the road ones (oasis’s) are shared between sides too. Or, it could be that there wasn’t a u-turn going the one way, but then there was one just past the rest stop going back and he used that. It’s hard to say, but I hardly think that’s a good argument, unless you know that there are none of these in that area of Kansas.
iPhone
If it survives in the fast lane, it will thrive in yours.
Fuck Apple.
Fuck the shitty iPhone.
Fuck MDN
Fuck anyone who disagrees with me.
Toll roads pretty much never have the same rest stop on both sides. That’s because people could then get back going the other direction and screw up the system. So he would have had to get off, pay the toll, get back on going the other way, get back off, pay the toll, then get back on going the way he was in the first place. So this article already sounds screwy and made up.
Maybe he just didn’t feel the need to mention EVERY toll booth he went through. I don’t see anything fishy here.
Um, the iPhone was still on? Is that what he means? Because it has an auto power off. If he means glimmering like in headlights, okay maybe, but you’d’a thought he’d’a said that. If he means the screen was On, I don’t believe it.
Maybe he just used that phrase since, in the end, the phone was working. Maybe another vehicle ran over it and somehow activated the home button or the sleep/wake button. Maybe he just meant that he hoped it was still alive and working.
@Shogun
The Kansas Turnpike has rest stops with a convenience store/gas station & a free standing fast food restaurant in the center of the roadway (median) so both directions of travel can access the rest stop, and they are placed about every 35 to 50 miles apart. This is not the typical Interstate rest stop/bathrooms on each side of the road like we normally see around the country.
Mr. Beauchamp perfectly described a Kansas Turnpike rest stop. And, if someone was trying to call his iPhone while he was looking for it, the screen would be turned on, and that is just what he described. I don’t see any reason why not to believe this man’s story, regardless what Shogun thinks.
These trucks push enough wind to push small cars off of the road without actually touching them so it seems entirely possible that the iPhone was tossed into the ditch from the displaced wind as opposed to being flicked into the ditch after being actually run over be one or more of the truck tires.
What source did you use to determine that large trucks can push a small car off the road with the displacement of air? I have driven small cars before, and never had any trouble with that.
I disagree with Zune Tang’s brother.
Re – Zune Tangs Brother
MDN’s registering Terms of Service –
“By registering at this site you agree not to post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, or that violate any laws. We will permanently ban all users who do so.”
So, by not registering you get a free pass to say what ever you like, especially obscene, vulgar, hateful and threatening language.
Come on MDN, lead the way, are you the administrators or not?
So does Kansas wind suck or… wouldn’t it actually blow?
I disagree with you, but I don’t play that way… do you have a hot sister who can do the dirty deed?
@Chris ][
“I’ve seen plenty of rest stops ….”
I’m sure you have.
Unfortunately, language has never been a concern for MDN. I don’t know why it even includes vulgarity in its terms of service. You’re right that the unregistered appear to be able to say what they want while registered ones can’t. Except I’m sure they’ll be able to get away with it, too.
“Come on MDN, lead the way, are you the administrators or not?”
Not.
What a load of crap 😀
May still work but I’ll bet the front is scratched to buggery. Oh and the truck is a write off.
@Fenman,
That was funny. You brought me a chuckle and I still have a smile.
@Fenman,
That was funny. You brought me a chuckle and I still have a smile.
@Fenman,
That was funny. You brought me a chuckle and I still have a smile.
@Fenman,
That was funny. You brought me a chuckle and I still have a smile.
@Fenman,
That was funny. You brought me a chuckle and I still have a smile.