identification

The former caretaker from 10 Downing Street, Matt Gather-Archer, who retired earlier this year after completing twelve years in the job claims that he can distinguish between different mobile phones purely by the sound they make when smashed against a wall. We took along a few when we went to meet him earlier this week.

Matt sat blindfolded while we threw a Motorola Startac against a wall. Once all of the pieces had settled he correctly identified the phone with a wry grin on his face. "That takes me back to my first week in the job" he said. "Gordon and Tony were having a spat about some policy or other and the Startac went. Probably the only time I heard one of those as they were all but obsolete by that point but you never forget your first, do you?"

He easily distinguished between a Nokia 3210 and a Nokia 3310. "I've heard loads of both of those. In fact between them they probably account for over 50% of the phones smashed against walls at the old place"

An iPhone was next and Matt had to think for a moment before correctly identifying it as a 3G 16 GB model. "I think 50% of the population now has an iPhone. Beautiful things but impossible to repair."

Finally we tried to trick him by throwing a Nokia 3220 against the wall. When it didn't break Matt burst into laughter. "A Nokia Gordon" he chuckled. "They designed that especially because of him but he soon worked out the correct way to throw it to make it smash. As I recall it only took him about 20 attempts to get it right."