STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (KDKA) — It’s a wildly popular mug these days: the Stanley cup, said to keep ice frozen for days and survive fires. But would it take a bullet for you? It did for a woman in Steubenville. 

The story you are about to hear is unusual, but it is certainly true. A woman managed to survive a stray bullet from hitting her all thanks to her Stanley.

“We heard seven or eight gunshots and then we heard one loud bang, so that was the bullet coming through the house,” said Rachel Kelley. 

Gunfire erupted in front of her Maryland Avenue home recently. There was only one thing keeping her from possible harm: her Stanley.

“It was coming right at me. If I hadn’t had this, it was my stomach or my chest, whatever it was, it was going to get shot,” she said. 

When the noise ended, she got a look at her mug. 

“That is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said. 

Her Stanley mug was on the floor with a dent and marks on it. It didn’t take long for her to figure out her beloved mug took a bullet for her.

The bullet hit the bottle, a table, then landed on the kitchen floor. When the Steubenville police showed up, they were also a bit stunned by the very different kind of mug shot. 

“They were like, ‘mind blown, that was crazy,'” Kelley said.

Her only request for investigators: “Please don’t take my cup. I need that cup.”

Kelley put the incident on TikTok. The post has garnered thousands of likes and comments, most people equally stunned, some suggesting getting rid of the thing, thinking it was bad luck.

“I’m keeping it forever,” she said. 

Others were convinced it had mystical powers.

“Is it like made of magic? I think it’s just really good stainless steel,” she said. 

No one was injured, but the incident did leave a hole in the wall, and of course, there’s the dented mug. And after what happened, Kelley and her fiancé are moving. She also gained new respect for her new best friend named Stanley.

“I would have never thought it’d be the savior of my days, but I’m glad it was,” she said. 

“I will never make fun of those cups again,” Kelley added. 

Ross Guidotti

Ross Guidotti, a Pittsburgh native and Point Park graduate , joined KDKA in 2001 as a general assignment reporter.