An odd thing happened to me late yesterday afternoon. My cordless mouse started heating up in my hand. At first I thought it was me then it got very unusually warm. I probably would have turned off a larger electrical appliance at this point but hey, it's only 2 AA batteries so I didn't feel overly threatened plus I was still not 100% sure I wasn't imagining it.
Eventually, the mouse quit. I popped open the battery cover and my hand became covered in white alkaline, carbon-zinc stuff or whatever it was. I'm assuming the heat was from the goop being plentiful enough and conductive enough that it shorted something out.
Being more curious than smart, I cleaned it out and put in new batteries. It's working fine today. Just glad it wasn't my car battery.
