iPhone blasted more than 3,000 feet up and exploded in Plymouth accident

AN iPhone 3GS belonging to a technician setting up a display at the British Fireworks Championships in Plymouth was blasted 3,000 feet into the air before being blown apart.

The phone was left in the blast zone by a pyrotechnician at the city event who returned to try to find it after the display - without any luck.

The incident was one of a number of unusual claims for lost or damaged mobile phones last year, according to company mobileinsurance.co.uk.

Other claims include a mobile phone lost by a Devon farmer who was using it as a torch while calving a cow - he claimed the phone was accidentally inserted into the animal.

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The phone was later recovered, but was no longer usable.

Other claims across the UK include a phone accidentally baked inside a Victoria sponge, one dropped into the sea by a couple on a cruise recreating a scene from Titanic and one almost flushed down the toilet.

Other claims include a phone grabbed by a seagull in Wales, one snatched by a monkey in Longleat and one thrown at a cheating boyfriend in Liverpool.

The credibility of some of these claims was doubted by the team at MobileInsurance.co.uk, and all claims were investigated fully.

Site data also revealed there had been 64 claims from customers saying they’d walked into an object whilst preoccupied texting.

John Lamerton, Managing Director at MobileInsurance.co.uk, said: “I must say, we tend to see a lot of weird and wonderful claims coming in from customers, but these 10 had to be the most bizarre. I’m not sure how some of them even came about, particularly in the case of the farmer and the cow.

“Mobile phones are only going up in price now, so it pays to have them insured for as many scenarios as possible. Judging by these claims, you really never know what you might need to claim for! My advice would be to just use the phone as a phone and not as an ingredient in a cake or a firework for that matter!”

FULL DETAILS OF THE TOP 10 WEIRDEST CLAIMS

1. A farmer in Devon claimed his phone had disappeared inside the back end of one of his cows when he’d been using the torch on his iPhone whilst assisting the cow during calving. The phone later made an appearance, but was damaged.

2. A lady in her early 40s from Nottingham claimed that she’d baked her Nokia 6303i into a Victoria Sponge she’d been making for her daughter’s birthday. It didn’t endure the heat of gas mark 5.

3. A lady in her 30s claimed she’d been walking her Cocker Spaniel on Barry Island beach, Wales, when a seagull swooped down and took her Samsung Galaxy from her hand.

4. A woman in her late 20s from Bristol claimed the vibration function on her BlackBerry Bold 9900 phone had stopped working whilst she was using it as an adult toy.

5. A 40 year old construction worker said his iPhone 4S had fallen out of his back pocket when he pulled his jeans down before sitting on the toilet. Not realising, he went about his business and flushed the chain. The phone didn’t flush, but underwent serious water damage.

6. A man in his 30s claimed he’d been filming monkeys from the car window in Longleat Safari Park with his HTC One X when a monkey climbed on the roof and snatched it.

7. A couple re-enacting the "I'm King of the World!" scene from Titanic lost their phone over the side of their cruise ship, whilst trying to take a photo of themselves.

8. A pyrotechnician was setting up a show for the National Fireworks Championships in Plymouth, and having left his iPhone 3GS within the "blast zone", it was nowhere to be found when he returned post-show, having been fired 3,000 feet into the air before exploding in a stunning display.

9. A lady in her 20s from Liverpool admitted she’d thrown her HTC Desire X at her boyfriend, whom she’d discovered was cheating, but it missed him and hit a wall; breaking the handset.

10. Rather than paying £60 for a ticket to see Blur at their sell-out Hyde Park shows, one customer tried to film the event on his iPhone from up a nearby tree - he got a little too excited as the band came on stage though, and dropped his phone onto the ground below.