NAPLES – Still resisting the urge to get yourself a cell phone? Read some of the recent headlines and you may find yourself scrambling for the nearest dealer.

A Naples man buried head-first in the snow Tuesday is only the latest to get out of a predicament with the help of a cell phone.

A pair of women kidnapped outside a convenience store in Laconia, N.H., on Saturday were able to call for help after their captor locked them inside the trunk of their car.

Not only did the call alert police, it helped rescuers find the women through a global positioning unit inside the phone. The car was found, the women freed from the trunk, and now the hunt is on for the kidnapper.

Also in New Hampshire, a hiker shivered in a tent through Friday night after finding himself stranded in Franconia Notch during a white-out blizzard. He spent six hours Saturday huddled in a snow cave before rescuers found him. How did they do it? They traced his location through his cell phone.

It doesn’t just happen in the snowy climate of New England. A fast search on the Internet reveals cell phone rescues all over the country – and the world. Cell phones have been credited with saving the lives of lost hunters, tornado victims, stranded snowmobilers and victims of crime.

In Tennessee earlier this month, several people were saved after making calls or sending text messages from cell phones when they became trapped in collapsed buildings following tornadoes.

Similar rescues in recent weeks have been reported in California, Oregon, Colorado, Vermont, North Carolina and Tennessee.

George Sovas, who became buried upside down in snow after ice and snow from a roof knocked him off a ladder, predicts he would have suffocated or froze to death if not for the phone in his pocket. It took Sovas two hours, but he was able to shake the phone loose and call for help.