A 7-year-old boy, Connor O’Keefe was recently electrocuted by his Nintendo Gameboy charger while on vacation with his family in Thailand. The system had been bought for the boy in Thailand as a Christmas present.

Hotel management believes the young boy had just come from the pool and while still wet he touched the charger, which caused him to receive a lethal shock from the unit. They believed that even the safety cut wouldn’t have saved him from that type of shock.

Conner’s parents claim the boy wasn’t wet when he touched the unit and he knew enough about electricity to not fool around with the socket or charger. They believe the problem was in the hotel's electrical system and want someone to look into it.

So far no blame has been laid and police are calling it an accident. Nintendo of Europe responded to the incident with this statement:

"Nintendo wishes to offer its sincere condolences to the family of Connor O'Keefe. Details of the accident are currently unclear so we are unable to make any further comment at this stage.”

The family returned home with the body to South East London on Wednesday.

Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Connor O'Keefe.

[Via The Sun Online and Games Industry.biz] 

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Namelessted

Wow, that is crazy. You do have to realize you don't need to be wet to be electrocuted. and it only take about .5 mA through your heart to kill you.

Tom Fronczak

Tlack took the words out of my mouth :)

Shred

Sorry to hear about the kid. I was electrocuted when I was about 9. My waffle got stuck in the toaster so I tried to retrive it with a fork. bzzzt! :O

deiga-the-semivaliant

A huge shame. Kid had his whole life ahead of him, and all he wanted to do was play his Gameboy. :(

Snaileb

My condolunces and bad grammer goes out to his family.

Namelessted

It is because the current did not go through your heart Teamjesus. Its amatter of chance which way electricity goes through your body most of the time.

Namelessted

Also, i love the grammar Snaileb

Snaileb

as long as we're all laughing with me and not at me. I can't get my feelings hurt again, or I'll start listening to emo music. I'll do it. I swear.

Snaileb

Tlack that was tasteless and brutally ignorant.

reindall

Shocking. But hey, even more people die from incorrect usage of pencils. Like sticking it in wrong places and choking or getting anus infections. Or something.

Jecrell

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7388/wow4twiw3cx8.gif

GatsuTheBerserker

Let's seriously hope Jack Thompson doesn't use this as leverage of any kind...I don't know how much of his stupidity I can take.

Hamza CTZ Aziz

god, i'd love to pet a tiger

Ph1dra

that is what you get for buyin stuff in thailand.

Aaron Mxy Yost

I thought the only people who went on vacation in Thailand were there for the sex tours.

ZekeThePlumber

Screw tigers, Ligers are where its at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FahfsKOhMzE

Cloudiroth

It only takes 100 milli-amps to kill you. I can't think of anything that could be wrong with the building's electrical system though...unless there was exposed wires out. If the kid only touched the charger, there's no way that's the building's fault. As long as the wall outlet had a cover on it & the kid couldn't have touched anything behind it, it couldn't be the building's fault.

Aetsen

http://spong.com/article/11432/Mainstream+Press+Uses+Tragedy+For+Cheap+Game+Headline?cb=426

Mainstream Press Uses Tragedy For Cheap Game Headline

So it turns out the gameboy part was complete bullshit.

Fullmetalpanic

What's next? They blame Nintendo for the child's death? ... The charger may not have been an official one too.

Condolences anyways

Pyramid Head

Despite knowing I might get a shock I still occasionally use plugs while wet. I live on the edge like that.

n00binator

Geez, that's actually pretty sad. Stupid game boy chargers, that's why I have a ds lite. I like being able to sleep at night knowing that I won't be VIOLENTLY MURDERED by my DS charger.

DS FTW!