From the Stories-Get-Distorted desk — attention: N.T. Wright:
A tale (with photos) has been making the rounds about a U.S. soldier in Iraq who was shot in a gunfight. According to the story, the soldier’s iPod, in his jacket pocket, “slowed the bullet down enough that it did not completely penetrate his body armor. Fortunately, Kevin suffered no wound.”
Except it turns out that’s not quite how it happened: the body armor is what actually stopped the bullet after all. The soldier’s first clue that he’d been shot was when he put his earbuds in afterwards but didn’t get music.
It’s funny how, as stories travel, they sometimes mutate into versions that seem more fitting or appealing. This particular mutation, in the age of the Internet, was quickly corrected, but only because the story’s poster was able to contact the soldier in Iraq.
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