[John Jamieson]

I think he put the magnet on the door sensor, not the computer chip. I know of no modern computer chips that can be erased or damaged by a magnet.

[demsux]

More Feldmanization taking place...maggots could get into a mummified body through natural orifices.

[the-gooroo]

JJ, where have you been?! I wondered what you thought of today's witness.the anthropologist.

[pyx]

I know of no modern computer chips that can be erased or damaged by a magnet.

RE: CPU's themselves, I agree.
(JJ you very likely already know what follows, but for others) Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), SDRAM memory, many Programmable Integrated Circuits (PIC) chips, several embedded CPU support chips are sensitive to magnetic fields and degaussing. Unshielded electronic alarm systems with programmable settings and memory of activity would obviously be sensitive to high gauss fields such as a child's magnet.