The only thing a frying pan full of sizzling bacon usually signifies is a delicious breakfast lies ahead.
For former Dunedin student Glenn Shields, it ended with an empty belly, a courtroom battle, and a $150,000 debt.
His unattended pan burnt the house down as he popped next door for a tomato, and his landlord's insurer dragged him over the coals to recover the loss.
More shockingly, Shields' five fellow flatmates were all collectively held liable by the courts, despite the fact they were nowhere near the house at the time.
We are now 15 years down the track, and countless bacon breakfasts later.
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Here's a story with a happier ending. An Auckland trio of students recently racked up a damages bill of almost $27,000 after one of them accidentally flooded their apartment building.
They were spared the crippling cost because one of the students had insurance for up to $1 million of legal liability.
Most people don't know that this is a common bonus feature of most forms of contents insurance, also sometimes advertised as renter's insurance.
This particular student's foresight was far sharper than many of her peers.
A recent survey by Massey University found that while most youth understood the value of getting cover, 80 per cent had no form of contents insurance.
Why are so many leaving themselves open to the loss of not only their own possessions, but potentially getting the blame for someone else's mistake?
Besides ignorance and the "it won't happen to me" attitude, Grafton says there are also financial factors at play.
