You’ve heard the story a thousand times: someone is hit by a bullet aimed at their heart, but an object in their breast pocket (usually a small bible, but also some other item such as a lucky coin, a locket, or some such) stops the bullet and saves the person’s life.

Well, here’s the 21st century telling of the tale: an iPod stops the bullet. U.S. Army Sergeant Kevin Garrad of the 3rd Infantry Division was on a street patrol in Iraq. As he rounded a corner, he came face-to-face with an insurgent. Both men open fire at near-point-blank range. The insurgent was killed, and Kevin almost was: the insurgent’s AK-47 fired a bullet which, at that range, probably would have penetrated his body armor–except that his iPod, in his left breast pocket, took the bullet instead, slowing it down enough so the MP3 player likely saved the soldier’s life. Photos from tikigod at Flickr:

I don’t even have to speculate as to whether someone at Apple will see this and send the guy a new iPod: apparently they did, and they will.

Cool.