Baked Laptop: Why Storing Valuables in the Oven is a Bad Idea

By Alex in Gadgets, Hacks & Mods, Pictures on Aug 26, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Photo: jimray [Flickr]

Apparently some people store their valuables inside the oven for safekeeping when they’re away. The downside of this method is that sometimes they forgot all about ‘em …

Here’s the story from Flickr user jimray:

My buddy Kidd left his laptop in his oven while away – you know, in case of break-in or fire, it’d be safe. We’re all over after grabbing him from the airport, ready to bake some cookies. Preheat the oven to 375, start mixing the ingredients, about ten minutes later, we notice a pretty awful smell. Open the oven door and, surreally enough, there’s a laptop and a backup harddrive staring me in the face.

Link – Thanks Darren! See also When Bad Things Happen to Good Computers, a gallery of computer disasters at PutPlace Blog

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Peeves
Aug 26th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
My roommate used to store things in the oven and it drove me crazy..no matter how many times I realized my mistake I never learned. Fortunately it was mostly stuff that didn’t burn too easily (like plates with flour for his rotis).
blaisepascal
Aug 26th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I used to shove dirty dishes in the oven to get them out of the way. I stopped after I preheated a plastic ice-cream scoop.

Now I just store clean baking pans and similar in the oven. Occasionally I have to remove a bunch of 350F glass casseroles, but no more melted plastic.
seekshelter
Aug 26th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
i once had a glow in the dark plastic halloween pumpkin full of candy on top of my fridge. my little nieces lived by me and they would always come by asking for candy. my mom told me to stop giving them candy when they came by… so one day, i heard the knock on the door and told my roommate to hide the candy bucket. they came in and realized the candy was gone and immediately left… later that night, i decided to make a pizza so i turned the oven on to preheat. a few minutes later, i smelled something and opened the oven to a burning plastic pumpkin… needless to say, it was a mess to clean up and everything stunk in there after that…
Christophe
Aug 26th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
So he placeed his data and its backup in the same storage area? hu…
Celeste
Aug 27th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I once heard about a woman who turned on the oven, and a few minutes later it exploded. Apparently her husband had thought it was a good place to store his gun collection.
Rae
Aug 27th, 2008 at 7:23 am
In college, the last day of classes was a HUGE party day, and my suite was hosting our society’s party, complete with a fair bit of alcohol. After purchasing the alcohol, the buyers decided the safest place for a bunch of bottles of Andre, schnapps and tequila was the oven, but didn’t tell anyone else.

I think I almost died when I preheated the oven to bake a cake that night, and soon started hearing a crackling sound and smelled a strange smell. Luckily, it was a crappy stove, and only got into the low 100s before I caught the problem.
Cat
Aug 27th, 2008 at 11:59 am
In the oven? Seriously? I was a bit surprised by the title, and then alarmed by the comments. I’ve heard of hiding items in the freezer, between mattresses, and even inside toilet tanks (for the more shady individual)…

blaisepascal, I have the same practice of putting my banking dishes in the oven, but that just seems common sense, and anything heating won’t explode!
Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
Aug 27th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
“My buddy Kidd left his laptop in his oven while away – you know, in case of break-in or fire, it’d be safe.”

Not if the fire starts in the oven.
Gail Pink
Aug 27th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Wow, I’m really surprised that no commenters have yet pointed out how REALLY EFFING STUPID THIS WAS!
Indra Blackthorne
Aug 29th, 2008 at 3:28 am
And that, kids, is why I always look in the oven before I turn it on.
LA
Aug 29th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Rednecks are dumb.

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