Boy dies in microwave playing hide-and-seek

[snopes]

A 6-year-old boy playing a game of hide-and-seek crawled into a microwave and suffocated.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...634395,00.html

[Not_Done_Living]

How big was that microwave?! I mean, my 7 year old is petite, but i don't think she could fit into our convection oven, let alone a microwave!

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by Not_Done_Living

How big was that microwave?! I mean, my 7 year old is petite, but i don't think she could fit into our convection oven, let alone a microwave!

Yeah, same here. I've never seen a microwave that a seven year old could fit into. Even five years old would probably be too big for a microwave. Are we using a loose definition of microwave here?

[jynni]

My parents have what I would consider a huge microwave that they bought back in 1980-something and there's no way a child could even fit in it, let alone get the door closed.

[General Redwood]

And how in the world did he close the microwave from inside? Microwaves don't have interior handles.

[James G]

A bit more information here:

http://www.bloggernews.net/18749

15 inches wide, 10 inches high, and 12 inches deep. It was placed with its back door up. Unlike today’s models, it wasn’t spring-loaded.

[Bonnie]

Plattsmouth boy suffocates in microwave during game of hide-and-seek

John Ferak
Omaha World-Herald
18 July 2007

[...]

In contrast to today's compact appliances, the microwave oven was 18 to 20 inches long and 18 inches deep, about the size of a living room end table. When the boy pulled the door closed behind him, the latch shut and trapped him inside, the chief said.

The boy was about 44 inches tall and weighed about 45 pounds. He could barely stuff himself inside the oven, Paulsen said.

"If he was 50 pounds, I don't think he would have fit inside it," he said. "It was one of those old-fashioned microwaves, probably from the early 1980s. Once he got in there, there was no way to open the latch."

[...]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10079304

(This story suggests that the microwave may have been "door up" in the back of the pick-up truck. The boy managed to wedge himself down, into the oven itself, and the door closed down behind him; he was unable to open the door from the inside. -- Bonnie)