Even for an off-duty police officer, the chance of danger is always something to consider, as one Brazilian police officer is well aware of. Luckily, our smartphones can be a lot more than just a phone, and if they're in the right spot at the right time, can potentially save a life.
Based on the report, there were two armed men included in the robbery attempt. One of them remained outside on a bike, while other detained the officer's mother, father and one other relative inside the house for more than 30 minutes.
The report [in Portuguese] points out that the robbers took watches, jewelry, cell phones and money before they managed to escape.
Before they did, though, an altercation erupted when the family's son, a member of the Sao Paulo State Military Police, visited his parents in an attempt to have his mother wash his uniform. When the robber outside saw the off-duty officer, he immediately opened fire. One of the rounds hit a neighbor's gate, while another hit the officer in the buttocks.
Thankfully he wasn't injured because "the phone in his pocket deflected the bullet." The report adds, unsurprisingly, that "the device was destroyed."
That handset just happens to be one of Nokia's newly launched Windows Phone-based devices. The Lumia 520 features a 4-inch display, which doesn't make it one of the largest devices in Nokia's Windows Phone portfolio, but it was just big enough to protect the officer when he needed it most.
The Lumia 520 also boasts a 1GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot that supports removable cards up to 64GB.
The Lumia 520 isn't the only mobile device that's managed to save a life, or otherwise protect an owner. As a list projects, there have been many handsets over the years that have managed to stop a bullet. HTC's EVO 3D and older device that's fallen well out of the spotlight, managed to stop a bullet from seriously injuring a gas station clerk when a thief shot him in the chest. A BlackBerry Curve, way back in 2010, stopped a bullet that was fired at a woman's leg accidentally by her boyfriend. And even an iPhone helped stop a bullet that would have hit the owner's heart.
