There’s Apple Care and then there’s this. Last October, a British man survived a close-range shotgun discharge thanks to his iPhone 5c.
The shooting incident occurred after 25-year-old Daniel Kennedy confronted 19-year-old Ryan Duggan who, with a group of people, had shut off the water supply to the apartment block Kennedy lived on. Kennedy chased Duggan off the block before Duggan turned and shot Kennedy with a sawed-off shotgun. Kennedy was able to run back to the apartment block and was taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital where he underwent treatment, and survived. The police found an iPhone 5c cell phone in Kennedy’s breast pocket.
The subsequent investigation into the shooting revealed that the iPhone 5c took the brunt of the shotgun blast damage. Detective Inspector Gary McIntyre, who led the investigation firmly attested that, “had that phone not been in his pocket at that time he would undoubtedly have died.” Dropping it on any surface may send its screen into glass confetti, but a bullet doesn’t stand a chance.
Police released a photo of the iPhone that sustained the blast:
The iPhone 5c joins a litany of other cellphones that have answered the call in life-or-death situations. In Fall 2013, for example, Staff Sgt. Shaun Frank’s iPhone prevented metal ball bearings released by a suicide bomber’s device in Afghanistan from piercing his chest by being in his chest pocket.
And it’s not just Apple that is providing telephonic chest protectors. Seven months ago, a 38-year-old Taiwanese man named Han was saved from a bullet puncturing his chest thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 he kept in his breast pocket.
With Apple rumored to provide past iPhones with a version of the upcoming iOS 9 optimized for their hardware capabilities, there may not be a better time to save some money — and potentially a life — with an iPhone 5c.
