All evidence suggests that we’re now a nation completely gripped by nomophobia – or the fear of being without our mobiles. We feel naked without them on a night out and grieve losing them in the same way we’d mourn losing a distant relative. Or Miley Cyrus does her dog.
But how far would we go to prevent being separted from our phones? We’ve all fished ours out of the odd toilet (haven’t we?!), and our culture editor witnessed someone rescuing their phone from the train tracks the other day (don’t try that one at home kids). But how many of us would actually go as far as to climb into a drain to retrieve an iPhone?
Well that’s exactly what Ella Birchenough, a 16 year-old from Kent, did. Only she got stuck while she was doing it. She dropped her phone into a drain and, instead of counting her losses and getting on with her day, actually armed herself with a towel and some wellies, removed the grate and lowered herself into the drain in an attempt to pick the phone up with her feet. So far, so (slightly) reasonable. But unfortunately everything didn’t quite go to plan and she ended up getting completely wedged into the drain. Which is a pretty hard look to pull off.
Firefighters responded quickly to a call made by Ella’s mother and they managed to rescue her in less than nine minutes. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately the phone wasn’t quite as lucky and has been described as ‘ruined’.
‘I was talking to somebody and I went to put my phone in my pocket and it fell down the drain. I thought to myself, “I’m not leaving this,” and I jumped down to get it. I wasn’t really even stuck, I just need somebody to help lift me out, but my mum got all panicky,' Ella, a GCSE student at Astol College, said. ‘When they pulled me out, I ran straight home and jumped in the bath. I think it was just water, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I was just laughing the whole time, I have seen the funny side of it. You just have to laugh along with it. There have been a few nasty comments about me being fat, which isn’t nice, but I'm trying not to take it to heart.’
Ella’s mum went on to say, ‘We are going to have to replace the phone but I’m not too angry. Worst case scenario is she ends up with an old Nokia.’
And that little green-screened nostalgia moment is exactly why we’re not surprised Ella jumped into that drain to retrieve her iPhone.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
Picture: Tim Richards
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.