A bulletproof cell phone? LG makes the case for it

A Korean-made cell phone has saved the life of a Briton. LG Electronics Inc. relayed yesterday a story reported Tuesday in the British media, including the BBC, the Daily Mirror and The Sun, regarding a jewelry shop robbery in which a bullet fired at jeweler Darren Prior was deflected by an LG phone in his breast pocket. Mr. Prior, 23, was chasing an armed robber who had stolen a bag full of jewelry from the store in West Sussex when the robber turned to fire two shots at him. The first one missed, but the second hit him in the chest, where, in the outside pocket of his jacket, the U8210 LG phone was located. “I felt the impact and realized I had been shot. I opened up my jacket to check where, and I couldn’t work out why there was no blood,” he was quoted as saying in The Sun. “Someone was looking out for me.” Police on the scene also credited the phone’s presence for helping Mr. Prior escape unscathed. “There is no doubt that the phone has saved him from serious injury,” Jo Wainwright, who is leading the investigation, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. Mr. Prior said he usually does not carry his phone with him at work, and only realized the bullet had hit his phone when he took it out to call police. “I must have forgotten to take [the phone] out after lunch,” he told the BBC. “And it’s lucky that I did.” The shot dented the phone’s back casing and the battery. by Lee Hee-sung, Yoo Jee-ho