Help! I Dropped My Blackberry in the Toilet

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This is a cautionary tale. It involves a BlackBerry in a toilet, a roommate with a hair dryer, a bowl of uncooked rice and a date who almost got stood up. And it has a happy ending — sort of.

Things started going downhill one Saturday evening after I got home from a bike ride. As I was about to wash my hands, I unclipped my waist bag, onto which I strap my BlackBerry.

That’s when I heard the clunk. My BlackBerry was in the toilet. Clean water, thankfully. I pulled it out as quickly as I could and shook it with all my might. The screen looked blurry, fading. I figured it’d be a good idea to pop the battery out.

Then it hit me: I had a date with someone I’d met the night before. It was two hours away. Plans weren’t firm. We’d agreed to go to a movie but hadn’t determined where or at what time. For a change, this was a date I was kind of excited about. But I’d saved the number only on my BlackBerry.

I sent a friend an instant message from my laptop, sharing my plight. My friend told me to leave it turned off overnight in a bowl of uncooked rice. Huh? Rice, he explained, sucks out moisture.

“Hi Katie Couric!”

Thanks to the rice nap, I was able to turn it on long enough to retrieve the one number that might save me from offering the lamest and most embarrassing excuse for standing someone up.

Here’s a whole page of tips on how to save your Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, etc from an unfortunate encounter with water… even toilet water. Good luck.