DETECTIVE SAVED AS BULLET HITS HIS MOBILE

An undercover policeman was saved from death when a bullet fired by a drug
dealer bounced off the cellular telephone he was carrying in a jacket
pocket.

In an unusually positive development for the mobile phone industry, the
device was described as "better than a bullet-proof vest" by the 29-year-old
officer, who works in New York's Bronx district.

The officer, whose name has been withheld because of the secret nature of
his work, was still in hospital yesterday, Thanksgiving Day. The detective
was not wearing a bullet-proof vest when he went with a colleague into a
flat to "sting" two suspected drug dealers. But the men were waiting to
steal the $2,000 (pounds 1,300) the officers had with them to make the bogus
deal.

One of the suspects hit the officer on the head with a gun and then shot him
at close range. The bullet hit the telephone in his jacket pocket, causing
it to glance off and graze his side. Police said that if it had not been
deflected it would almost certainly have killed him.

The men were arrested as they fled the apartment. The officer, who was
expected to leave hospital in time for Thanksgiving dinner with his family,
said: "Who would have thought a little phone could have been better than a
bulletproof vest?"