From MacBooks flattened by car tires to a laptop flying off the roof of a car at 60 miles per hour on the interstate, Brophy computers, a necessary tool for Brophy students, have been broken in a multitude of ways, and the Innovation Commons workers have seen it all.

As a specialist in Brophy’s I.C. department, Mr. Matt Rubin said he receives from 8 to 10 broken computers a week. But beyond the typical screen cracks, Mr. Rubin has witnessed some of the oddest breaks. He has also heard every “I don’t know what happened” and “It was just like that” excuse in the book.

“‘I just opened it, and it was like this’ is the most common excuse when students don’t want to own up to something,” Mr. Rubin said.

On some occasions, students bring in dented “U-shaped” computers that were obviously run over by cars. But in one case, a student accidentally left their laptop on top of their car, and by the time they had realized, it was already too late. 

“There was a student who left his computer on top of his car and didn’t notice it until it came off at about 60 miles per hour on the interstate,” said Mr. Kyle McCoy, a specialist in Brophy’s I.C. department. The same student then brought in about 1/4th of their computer, but since it still had its serial number, it still got repaired.

Other, more dangerous situations include computers that are actively expanding due to battery leaks. Battery leaks are the same situations that can cause electric fires. “It’s essentially a small version of the car fire battery,” Mr. McCoy said. These fires are also extremely difficult to put out. “That’s almost impossible to put out unless you literally bury it in sand or something like that,” Mr. Rubin said.

Not every break is life-threatening, however. Sometimes, the damage is just weird. During the height of the ‘Among Us’ craze, one middle schooler brought in a computer with all the keys removed, except for a row that spelled out “among us.” “It took me probably 3 hours to reorganize all the keys and make it match,” Mr. Rubin said.