Brits flush 850,000 phones a year

Once you have lost a phone (or seven) in the loo, this story becomes that much funnier. I lost my Blackberry 7290 in the crapper while at a convention in Las Vegas a few years back, and ever since that fateful night, I have been an major advocate of bluetooth headsets.

But when it comes to giving mobile phones a watery death, nobody does it quite as well as our friends across the pond.

Research by SimplySwitch, a company specializing in price comparison and switching phone carriers, found 4.5 million cell phones are lost or damaged in the UK each year. Second to the burial at sea, 810,000 handsets end up amongst the peanuts and broken hearts at local pubs, 315,000 stay behind for an extra long cab ride, 225,000 keep riding public transportation after their owners leave, and 116,000 ended up in some dirty laundry.