Michael Crider
Microsoft doesn’t advertise any of its Surface hardware line as bulletproof, or even bullet-resistant. Nevertheless, one owner of the Surface Book claims that his saved his life, after a stray bullet fired from a nearby apartment lodged in the 2-in-1 laptop. A dramatic photo posted to Twitter shows the round “caught” between the screen and the touchpad.
My laptop literally just saved my life… Someone shot through the floor in my apartment building
Shoutout to the surface book @Microsoft @MicrosoftHelps pic.twitter.com/cQYwtTY9hb
— Aaron (@itsExtreme_) October 10, 2020
It’s not easy to see what happened from the photo, and no one on staff at Review Geek is a forensic ballistics expert. But @itsExtreme_ (who goes by Aaron) says that the bullet entered his apartment through the floor. That would mean that it then came up through the detachable bottom of the tablet-laptop, through the touchpad (note the cracked glass) and finally lodged in the impact-resistant Gorilla Glass of the screen. Presumably it was closed at the time, with the loose bullet being caught in between.
One commenter on Twitter provided a speculative and entertaining explanation:
For all the "genius" CSI experts who think you have to be lying on your laptop for it to save you.
I present the "bit of an angle" theory. pic.twitter.com/SA7BrmcVPM
— Nigel Auchterlounie (@spleenal) October 12, 2020
Aaron says he called the police, and apparently this was a case of an accidental fire instead of some kind of more violent occurrence. Still, it’s wonderful that the only casualty was a nice laptop. Hopefully the person responsible will have some hefty explaining to do to the local authorities. Even in the United States, accidentally firing a gun into a neighbor’s home is generally regarded as a bad thing.
Aaron might get a happy ending from the harrowing experience. Among hundreds of replies to his tweet last week, the official Microsoft Store account asked him for a direct message. Maybe they’ll hook him up with a newer, less perforated Surface Book.
