An 11-year-old boy urinated on several MacBook computers on a cart in the Upper Allen Elementary School Wednesday, damaging them beyond repair, according to Upper Allen Twp. police.
The loss came to more than $36,000, police said.
Police charged the boy with institutional vandalism and criminal mischief and are turning him over to the Cumberland County Juvenile Probation Department.
“Can you even pay Apple to service the machines?” Cult of Mac’s John Brownlee wonders.
“The answer is no, because Apple looks at micturated-upon MacBooks as a biohazard,” Brownlee reports. “The reason it’s likely being calculated as a full loss is because Apple won’t service the MacBooks.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Too much Apple juice.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
$36,000 in macbooks is at LEAST 25 computers….who the fuck does that?! i could buy 60 shares of apple stock with that much money and i would be up 600$ today ALONE! Damn kid i would kick his @$$ right now if i knew where he was
Up 600 huh? A lot can change in 2 hours.
How are they ruined? Were they on when they had the liquid damage? Just put them in dry uncooked rice overnight. There is probably more bacteria on the school water fountain anyways. This is just piss-poor irresponsible money and hardware management of you ask me.
The main problem caused by the urine, apart from stink and health concerns, is the bacterial production of ammonia, which in turn creates a high pH environment, which in turn corrodes metal components. I further geek-out in a comment below.
Was that little mofo Korean by any chance?
Now now! Not all Koreans are Samsung shills, suckers or sycophants! 😉
Two boring geek-out technical thoughts:
1) The school probably has insurance for student damage of property. (Well, in this education funding anemic era, who knows).
2) If the peed upon MacBooks had their batteries removed and were quickly rinsed with distilled water, followed by thorough drying, theoretically they could be salvaged as well as non-hazarous to human health. Leaving the urine in place results in the bacterial breakdown of urea to ammonia, raising the urine’s pH, damaging metal components. The MacBooks would also smell very bad. 😉
An 11 year old boy totalled 20 or so MacBooks? I’m an Apple fan 100%, but Filter said it best: “that’s why I say ‘hey man, nice shot.'”