Seagulls have smashed £1.6bn worth of smartphones, a study has found.
A poll of 2,000 Brits by experts at MoneySuperMarket found that the number of claims being made for cracked phone screens had rocketed.
In the past year alone, 56% of gadget repair claims were for smashed-up phones, which cost an average of £895.
READ MORE: 'Seagull insurance' launched for sandwich shop customers attacked by birds 30 times a day
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The cause of cracked screens, however, wasn’t simply us being clumsy clots and dropping our phones on the ground for no good reason.
The study found that although 40% of smashed screens came about simply because we had butterfingers, some were caused by pesky seagulls.
A total of 10% said they had dropped their phone while carrying a heavy load, with 3% saying their phones had fallen out of their pocket or bag and smashed on a trip to the loo.
A further 2% said their phone had fallen out of their pocket or hand ‘from a height’, like a window, hill or mountain.
Of those polled, however, 3% said they’d been left with a damaged phone after being ‘attacked by a seagull’.
With around 58m folk with smartphones in the UK, that works out at just over 1.7m who’ve been dive-bombed by a gull, causing them to drop their phone and smash it.
Some of the gulls - of which there are around 700,000 in the UK - think the phones are food, while others are attracted to the ‘glint’ of the phones, thinking they are insects.
A spokesman for MoneySuperMarket said this week: “Most cracked screens are caused by dropping a phone on a hard surface - 40% in all.
“A total of 10% of those we asked said they had dropped their phone due to having their hands full, with 3% dropped it down the toilet, and 2% out of a window.
“Of those polled, 3% said it was due to being attacked by a seagull.”
A recent study found that around half of Brits had been swooped on by a gull after their food, with the top foods nicked including chips, crisps, sandwiches, chicken nuggets and fried chicken.
TV star Dan Walker, 46, the former Football Focus host who now presents 5 News on Channel 5, previously revealed how a seagull pinched his battered sausage when he was strolling along Brighton Beach in 2019.
He said: “I lost a battered sausage to a seagull once on Brighton Beach
“When they are up close and personal gulls are big units and protecting yourself and your chips can be very difficult.”
He added: “Often they approach from behind...they’re sneaky.”
Strictly Come Dancing 2016 winner Ore Oduba, 38, has previously revealed that he’s scared stiff of gulls, adding: “Birds - seagulls, pigeons - I don’t know why I hate them.”
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