Cell phone saves man from lethal bullet

When Ronald "R.J." Richard jumps on his tractor to do yard work, he normally clips his cell phone to the hip pocket of his overalls.

But Saturday he decided to hook it to bib of the garment, just over his heart. It was a decision made without a second thought, but it was one that might have saved Richard's life a short while later.

"Something hit me in the chest really hard," said Richard, who initially thought he had been struck by a rock kicked up by the motor.

But when he took off his sweater and opened the nylon case for his Motorola Razr phone, a .45-caliber bullet fell out.

The stray bullet, probably fired from the woods near his 5-acre property on North Lee Road near Covington, shattered Richard's cell phone but left him with little more than a bad bruise.

"I don't look at any of this as coincidence," Richard said Wednesday. "I look at this as God telling me to put my cell phone in that pocket, and I'm grateful and humbled."

Richard called 911, though he said he had trouble explaining that he had been shot but didn't need medical attention. The first deputy to arrive expected to find someone with a lethal wound, Richard said.

"When they got here they made me take my shirt off to show them there was no hole," Richard said.

The 68-year-old said that although gunshots can frequently be heard from the woods -- evidence of hunters and target shooters -- no shots have ever come near the house in the eight years he has lived there with his wife.