A Florida gas station clerk is lucky to be alive today thanks to his smartphone, which blocked a bullet fired at his chest during an attempted armed robbery.
The shooting happened after a man entered the store at the Hess gas station in Winter Garden, Fla. early Monday morning and asked a clerk to help him find a beverage, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
The man then pulled out a revolver and demanded that the clerk open the safe, CNN affiliate WESH reports. However, when two store clerks were unable to get the safe door open, the suspect decided to fire a single gunshot and flee the store, say police.
Forunately, the victim suffered only minor injuries because the round struck his cell phone, which was in his shirt pocket and stopped the bullet. Emergency services workers were called to the store, and as they were interviewing one of the clerks, he complained of chest pains.
"They were there for a while before they even realized that he had been shot. He had complained about having some chest pains and when they started looking in deeper, they realized his phone had a bullet lodged in it and it was damaged from it," said Winter Garden Police Lt. Scott Allen.
"It's a miracle he's able to be with us today because technically that round could have been life threatening," Allen said according to the Bay News 9.
Although the clerk didn't suffer any other injuries and was quickly released from a hospital, the fate of his HTC smartphone wasn't as forunate since the screen was completely shattered.
"I've seen individuals get shot with low-caliber handguns and I've seen it be life ending. So, for this gentleman to be as lucky as he is, it's a good day for us," Allen said.
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