Costco shopper left pantless when phone catches fire in his pocket
March 17 (UPI) -- A Washington state Costco shopper had to shed his pants in a
hurry
when his cellphone abruptly caught fire in his pocket, witnesses said.
Witnesses said they followed smoke Thursday to the hardware aisle of the Costco
in
Puyallup and found a man frantically removing his pants.
"There was so much smoke. And there were two or three people who had a fire
extinguisher.
They were trying to help him," witness Everett Tyrrell told KOMO-TV.
"I was kind of worried about the guy. I guess his pants were affected by the
phone
or caught on fire," Tyrrell said. He was pointing at the phone. I said, 'Is that
your cellphone?' He said 'Yeah.' I asked, 'What type of cellphone? He said 'LG.'
A store manager said the phone's flames had died down by the time employees
arrived
with a fire extinguisher. The manager said the man had managed to remove his
pants
fast enough to avoid being injured.
The manager said the phone left a scorch mark on the floor of the aisle.
The shopper was given a new pair of pants, the manager said.
It was unclear what caused the phone to burst into flames.
LG rival Samsung issued a recall last year for its Galaxy Note 7 phones, which
were
found to have a battery issue that caused some of the phones to explode and
catch
fire.
Copyright 2017 by United Press International
