'Magnetic Boy' keeps crashing computers

Summary

March 11, 2008: A 12 year old boy from Pulaski, New York state has apparently developed the ability to crash any computer and other electrical devices merely by being close to them. This phenomenon has appeared both in school equipment as well as at devices at home.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article

Game and Story Use

• This does sound like an emerging superpower, in which case it becomes important to know where it comes from. Does he come from a long line of mutants? Is he really an alien that was adopted as a baby by his parents? Did he encounter some weak spot in reality that dosed him with cosmic forces?
  • In a setting in which psionics are a thing, this would be quite possibly a sign of untrained electrokinetic powers … in others, the tendency to break technological devices by your presence is a sign of magical ability.
    • A changeling perhaps?
• Alternatively, he could be possessed by an alien parasite, or a demon - and the electrical disturbances are a sign of the entity's increasing control over its surroundings, and the boy. How powerful can it become?
• In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files the use of magic tends to shut down technology - the more advanced the device the more it tends to suffer.