Woman Says Car Keys Saved Her Life

A mother in Amarillo, Texas, has become a social media hero after fighting off an attacker early Friday. Jessica Collins, 27, says she was punched in the nose by a man in the parking lot of her apartment complex at 2:30am after going out to her car to retrieve a phone charger, KPRC reports. Thankfully, Collins' own mother had taught her a self-defense tactic years before from a women's TV documentary: Carry your keys between your fingers. So Collins punched the man in the neck with a right hook, stabbing him with those keys, and he fled, holding his neck.

Collins immediately went to the police to report the attack and officers were able to collect the assailant's DNA from her keys. Collins posted a picture of her face and keys on Facebook on Friday in the hopes of educating other women about the value of the self-defense technique. "I am just trying to raise awareness so many women and girls these days don't pay attention or think (until) it's too late," Collins wrote. "So I'm not only trying to inform people but maybe even save lives." As of this writing, Collins' Facebook post had been shared 67,000 times. Her assailant remains at large. (Elsewhere, kidnappers learned that it's unwise to mess with a sharpshooter.)