Original Blog Entry: Cousins attract attention with claim they are human magnets

truesee — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:29:55 GMT

Serbian cousins attract serious attention with claim they are human magnets

Lukas I. Alpert

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, September 19th 2011, 10:49 AM

Luka Lucic shows off his rare skill.

A pair of Serbian cousins have been attracting serious attention with the claim that they are human magnets.

Wherever David Petrovic, 4, and his cousin Luka Lukic, 6, go, metal objects stick to them, their families claim.

David's mother said she first noticed the trait about a month ago, when he came walking out of the kitchen with forks and spoons sticking to his chest.

I asked him to fetch me a spoon so I could feed his little brother, and he yelled back: 'Mom, it sticks!' Sanja Petrovic told The Associated Press.

When she called her sister, she said she discovered David's cousin was capable of the same thing.

Other kids in the family can't do this, just the two of them, she said.

The phenomenon is rare and unexplained, but similar cases have been reported in Serbia and nearby Bosnia and Croatia.

As far as I know, there is no medical or scientific explanation, said radiologist Mihajlo Dodic.

Luka Lukic, 6, is an attractive boy. (Marko Drobnjakovic/A)

But other experts remain skeptical.

I doubt very much that someone is magnetic, said Patrick Regan, a physics professor in England. Humans are made of the wrong material to be magnetic.

It would be pretty unsafe to have metal objects sticking to you against the force of gravity, he said. You couldn't switch something like that off - unless it's fake.

Luka's father, Slavisa Lukic, said doctors have told them the boys are otherwise healthy.

Nobody can tell us why this is happening, he said.

David's mom said the magnetic attraction appears to wane when the boys sleep but switches back on when they are awake and moving around.

The family says they were alarmed at first but have gotten used to the unusual phenomenon and all the attention surrounding it.

It was a shock at first, but now we just try to keep the knives away from them, Petrovic says.

... [ More ]