Mobile shields man from death bullet

A US man has claimed that divine intervention and his mobile phone helped save him from being shot. Ronald Richard of North Lee Road, Covington, New Orleans told local paper The Times-Picayune that one day whilst out and about, he decided on a whim to put his Motorola Razr in a pocket directly over his heart, instead of the …

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the phone was the target?

It's pretty vain of the guy to assume that he was the target, and not the phone. If the marksman was that accurate, they'd have gone for a headshot to be sure. They sure did a good job on that phone though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, for Darwin's sake...

>"“I look at this as God telling me to put my cell phone in that pocket,” he told the paper."

So, to him, "God" is just another way of saying "I'm so fucken dumb I do things without knowing what I'm doing or why, so I better hope that there's /somebody/ out there who has a friggin' clue".

Coming next: bear shits in woods - redneck claims "It's a miracle!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come on!

A .45 bullet was stopped by a mobile phone? The only way that could happen is if the bullet had already spent all it's kinetic energy slowed right down. Perhaps it was a ricochet? Or failing that a total wind up.

A bullet that could be stopped by a Razr probably wouldn't have done much harm anyway.

[Eddie Edwards]

Standard Motorola crap

If it was a Jesus Phone it would have been working again by the third day.

[Andy Worth]

Divine intervention....

Of course...it must have been God that told him to put his phone in that pocket, because God does things like that. He also tells me that I have to hide my socks so that I can never find a matching pair.

It's nice to know that a Motorola can be useful for something at least though!

[Nic Brough]

Meh

With the number of people being hit by bullets in the US, combined with the number carrying mobile 'phones, this was going to happen sooner or later.

So "divine intervention" is cobblers as always.

But I do like the Shellphone monicker, I hope Mr Richard's bruising is not too bad and he gets a replacement 'phone and a very humble apology from the shooter!

[Damn Yank]

been fired in nearby woodlands

nearby woodlands = 9th Ward?

[MrWeeble]

Divine intervention

or maybe God just really hates Motorolas

[mike]

Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes recently provided a similar story - and I was there. While doing wildfire patrols on the evening in question (www.capefires.com) we ended up at one of the designated fireworks areas in Cape Town (in South Africa you need a permit to let of fireworks, except at Guy Fawkes, and then only in designated areas).

The evening got pretty crazy, and as we were right next to the sea, we ended up doing primarily first aid (ie min fire risk). The pinnacle was reached when one crazy ass fired a rocket at his cousin (ie horizontally, not up) which hit him on the left breast - which appears to have been where his phone was. Crappy Samsung slider, but it was blown into about 5 pieces, and his shirt burnt, etc. We cleaned him up, the police were too lazy to arrest the guy for attempted murder (prob the paperwork), and the victim was taken to hospital in the back of the police van when he started getting rather (very) white and shaky.

True story, I promise. It was amazing there weren't other serious injuries.

[Adrian Jackson]

Why so sceptical? God made him put the phone in his pocket.

It was the least the bastard could do after arranging for a bullet to be miraculously fired directly at his heart.

[Graham Jordan]

I had a simular experiance myself.

Last night on my way home from work I was oo'fing it down the ring road in Notts when some devine power told me I should stop.

I breaked and averted driving into the back of a lorry which for some reason had come to a halt behind stationary traffic.

True story.

[b]

I smell...

an insurance claim...

[James Pickett]

Selective

Amazing how God intervenes on the part of morons (sorry, merkins) but doesn't do anything for the deserving inhabitants of Darfur or Muanda...

[Filippo]

God's mysterious ways

The baseline expectation of a man walking in the woods is to have a nice walk and then go back home. From that point of view, getting shot doesn't sound like much of a miracle, even if you don't die. Surely if God liked Ronald Richard, he'd simply have arranged for the shooter to aim somewhere else entirely? Rather than being thankful, I'd worry about what sin deserved a scare, a bruise and the loss of a cellphone.

[Anonymous Coward]

God save us from... oh wait.

It broke the phone and bruised him, so it was spent anyway and wouldn't have killed him. So it could equally have been God saying "Don't put it in that pocket, you doofus, it's meant to go in your trousers and irradiate* your gonads so you can't reproduce."

I recommend he go for some elective surgery to comply with God's evident Will. Or he'll *BURN*!!!!oneleven.

* Hey, you may as well have lots of irrational beliefs not backed up by any evidence if you're going to have the big one, no? Though there's probably more actual evidence that phones can damage your reproductive health than there is for God.

[Peyton]

@Oh come on!

I absolutely agree - I knows loads of people that have been shot in the heart to no effect. O_o

If you're going to rattle on about kinetic energy, you might also add into account the deceleration the Motorola would provide and the spreading of the bullet's pressure over the area of the phone? At the very least say something like "if it was in his shirt pocket it would only have punctured his lung, not his heart"

[Anonymous Coward]

Mythbusters Busted this !!!

Mythbusters recenty did a show on this very 'Myth'.

Alot of testing showed that there is no way a phone can stop a .45. Unless of course it was fired from a long ways a way.

BUSTED !!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

A Razr eh

Well they must be making them out of much sturdier materials these days. The last one I owned couldn't survive a drop from hip height onto a wood floor.

[James O'Brien]

I smell bullshit

I mean seriously. . .a RAZR vs. A spent 45 cal. Personally I want to know how spent it must have been cause even then im sure a 45 packs quite a punch.

Now as for God intervening I can say Ive been there. Every Sunday when I don my football gear, go out on that great field to play the "Best American Game"* in the world I give thanks to my Lord. And after every touchdown catch God AND his son Jesus talk to me saying they made me catch that ball. I must get down and pray in the endzone at that time giving thanks. Its amazing how he speaks to me when I am playing.

*I love this game but damnit it wouldnt have been possible unless my Lord and Savior had shown me the way.

/mines the one with the .45 Auto in the pocket

/walks out whistling

[Anonymous Coward]

It's deer season

The guy was doing yard work on his tractor and clipped the phone to the bib of his overalls. He didn't put it in his pocket. The bullet came out of the woods in the middle of deer season when there are hundreds of yahoos traipsing around, drunk, firing indiscriminantly at anything that moves. It's kinetic energy probably was spent by the time it reached him. The same thing happened on an episode of CSI: NY a few months ago, except it was stopped by the slightly elastic fabric of his shirt. He was a NYPD crime scene investigator instead of a redneck though, so it's OK.

[scott]

alternate history!

"Bloody hell Hardy - if it wasn't for my Communicator, I'd be a gonner!"

"Dear Lord, thanks for recommending I keep my Blackberry in that over-the-shoulder poser-phone holder. Yours, Richard I".

"And this just in from Dallas, Texas. President John F Kennedy escaped with minor bruising and a busted Thuraya satphone after what appears to have been an assassination attempt. A spokesman for the President claims Mr Kennedy is furious, as it's a nightmare trying to replacement handsets."

[Jason Semple]

Mythbusters - Busted

Mythbusters recently did a segment on their show testing thsi 'Myth'. They tested if a .45 round could be stopped by a mobile phone.

After some testing on the range, this was 100% 'BUSTED'.

The only way i could see how a phone could stop a .45 round was if it was fired from a LONG ways a way and had lost most of its energy BEFORE hitting the phone.