This is a true story ...
I happened in November 2000; and as for the actual sequence of events, well let's agree that light travels faster than sound, and smoke initiates the fire alarm ...
A few years ago, Arthur Pounder was working in tech support for a small software company. He received a frantic telephone call from an employee -- we'll call her Sally -- who just spilled coffee all over the keyboard of her computer.
Arthur was in the middle of an important project, so he only had a few minutes to explain that she should use water to flush the coffee out of the keyboard and then call him back when she was done.
Arthur was sitting at his desk waiting for the call when he suddenly saw a flash of light and heard a bang from the office kitchen. A loud scream was quickly followed by a power outage.
Arthur ran toward the kitchen, grabbing the fire extinguisher, with his manager and IT director one step behind. When they entered the kitchen they didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Sally was standing over the sink holding her laptop under running water. Tears were running down her face and her hands were covered in black as the water continued to spill down over her keyboard. Unbelievably, she had even plugged in her laptop to the power outlet!
Moral of this story: Always ask users whether they are using a laptop or desktop before rendering advice about a coffee cleanup operation.
This was published "Oops True IT Bloomer #134"
http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid1_gci962653,00.html# 
