I made a stupid mistake like this last week.
I couldn't find my external hard drives' AC adaptor. I was getting impatient and had a project I really wanted to finish that was stored on it. So I looked through my room and found my old laptop's AC adapter from 10 years ago or so. It looked like it would worked, the plug fit and be voltages seemed ok.
So I plugged it into one, the drive turned on. The light blinked a few times but then quickly shut off. I was confused, but went ahead and tried it in the other one.
Long story short, I now have two shiny gray/black paper weights.
Oh and their real AC adaptor? It was under the table that I looked on over and over that day.
Not sure if it relates back to Bernie's curse, but this all took place in the room where the PC Engine I just got now sits.