Ring Of Fire? Cell Phone Turns On Oven

It's amazing, it's peculiar, and it's dangerous. So says a Brooklyn man who's experiencing some weird occurrences with his cell phone and his stove.

These days it seems like cell phones or smart phones can do just about anything. Just ask Andrei Melnikov, whose smart phone apparently has an unintended "app" unlike any other.

That's because when Melnikov's Sony Ericsson PDA is near the stove in his kitchen and happens to light up with a call, his Maytag Magic Chef oven lights up to a broil.

"The over turns on by itself," he told CBS 2. "If I want to bake some pie, I just put the pie inside and ask a friend to give me a call. That's all I have to do."

He said he noticed it last week when the cell phone was just a couple feet from the stove. It rang, and the stove began to beep, indicating the broiler was on high. Gas flames came on from the burners, torching his meat thermometer that was inside the oven.

"I see the flames and the smoke coming from here. I was shocked the first time," he said.

Melnikov said this whole thing is beyond dangerous and that he and his wife can't sleep, fearing that another incident might happen again."

"It could be a fire. If I leave the house and didn't smell the smoke it could be dangerous," he said.

The company sent a repairman to his home on Monday, but he couldn't explain why it was happening. So he ordered a suppressor for the stove in hopes of fixing the problem. That order, however, could take one to two weeks before it arrives.

For now, Melnikov will keep the stove unplugged and his cell phone far away.

A spokesman for the Whirlpool Corporation, which owns Maytag, told CBS 2 they just learned of the problem Monday morning and are looking into it with their customer service team.

Ring Of Fire? Cell Phone Turns On Oven - CBS News