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iPod: This Season's Must-Have for Muggers
KH writes "West Midlands police have issued a stark warning to iPod users: ditch the white headphones or pay the price." Apparently, muggers recognize the headphones and target passersby for muggage.
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Yeah, the white headphones do give it a way, but this paragraph is badly written!
The thief then asked Baskerville if he was listening to an iPod and, receiving an affirmative answer, he "pulled a knife out and started waving it at me, saying: 'Well hand it over, then.' I gave it to him and he ran off. He must have known I was wearing an iPod because of the white headphones."
Apple UK's wave of iPod advertising may be making the product a 'must-have' accessory for street criminals. It's also possible that UK journalists, disappointed at Apple's recent news that its much-anticipated iPod mini won't ship until July, now also have Apple in their sights - as was the case with the recent battery bad news stories.
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
...sux. Had some street dude try to mug me before, downtown atlanta. Was getting off work, that day in the merchandise mart doing tradeshow set-up. Was tired and not in the mood to get mugged. This doofus walks up to me in the parking lot across the street as I was loading my tools back in the ride, waltzs right up and demands cash, Sez Mr. mugger wannabe -> "gimmee 20$" then some cursing. I stepped back, swung my vest open and started to draw my piece. Sez me ->" How 'bout 45 instead?"
heh heh he took off running.
Just an anecdotal story, doesn't mean much except to point out muggings happen everywhere,all around the whirrled, just sometimes they have a happy ending.
There's an old saying I am fond of:
"God made man - Then Colonel Colt made them equal"
Not that bad an idea. You generally need iTunes to use and iPod, right? And each iPod must have a unique identifier (presumably for DRM among other reasons), right?
Well, you could register your iPod as stolen and the next usage connected to iTunes could be noted by Apple. Then either a lo-jack scenario ensues OR your iPod gets locked with a "stolen ipod" screen.
Of course there are liabilities, jurisdictional, law enforcement, and practical reasons why this would be a no go. But it could be done.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
So basically people just want to show off - its expensive, and they want to demonstrate that they have a real iPod, not some cheap knock-off player. Pitching to peoples pride an narcissism has always been a marketing winner - that's why distinctive headphones are so good.
Compare this with cellphones - the status is in how small they are. Hard to show off how small something is: if it's really small it hides invisibly in your pocket. Personally I think this is where a lot of the whole "Digital Camera on a cell phone" came from... it's a new status symbol element showing off how expensive your cell phone is, but it's quite easy to show off - just go around taking pictures of everything.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
The fact remains that you're walking around with a 300-500 device with you that's easy to sell and run off with. If you advertise the fact that you don't have just a cheap walkman, you will increase your chances of being mugged.
Walk around in the wrong neighborhood with those distintive headphones, and you could quite easily be mugged. Do you walk around with a big fat wallet with hundred dollar bills sticking out because worries about being robbed are only "media fearmongering"?
AccountKiller
Way back when I was the one of the few people to have an iPod, I was always very self concious when I pulled it out of my pocket. It's distinctive, but I don't want that kind of attention... I just want to listen to my music without feeling like some elitist rich snob. The problem was that even after I put my iPod back in my pocket, those damn white headphones were still trailing down over my customary black jacket... a little like the iPod advertisements these days. I couldn't stand it, and ended up buying new headphones. The new ones are great, incredible technical accomplishments that cost quite a bit more money, but without that distinctive white cord I feel like so much less of an elitist rich snob, and now the only people that give me a second look while wearing them are audiophiles.
Nowadays the whole rich elitist snob thing doesn't apply, because every college kid has an iPod of his very own. I have some friends with iPods that never felt the way I did before, but now that the dangling white cords are everywhere they've bought new headphones because they feel like they're trend followers. I know all of this must sound terribly vain, but in my profession appearances are very important (yes, even while listening to music).
My story doesn't seem to have much of a point, I know. I guess what it comes down to is that if I were to pick my least favorite facet of the iPod, the white headphone cord would definitely be it. I don't like being a walking billboard for anything, no matter hor subtle the advertisement.
If you get nervous, just remember that there are a few billion other people who don't really give a damn.
The police are right in saying West Midlands criminals are targeting specific groups.
As a Birmingham student in halls of residence, both my next door neighbours, and then their neighbours, have all been broken into. One of the guys on the end had his room hit but he didn't have the notebook they were looking for so they left.
I guess you could be it as some sort of social equilibrium in practice - students with so much near to areas of high unemployment, but what *really* pisses me off is when international students are (again intentionally) targeted - these are going to be important people who never want to come back to this city or country again. I guess the muggers aren't thinking of the global future but they really do a lot of unbalencing harm as well...
Pepper spray is OC, OC stands for Oleoresin Capsicum, the same stuff that's in habanero and jalapeno peppers (among most others.) You could certainly put a little of it in your chili for effect, but putting it on tacos is just showing off.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Okay, all that slightly offtopic stuff said, wearing white headphones will not get you mugged. However, if some guy on an empty street stops you and asks you if you have an ipod, and you stop walking, look at them, and respond... well that may get you mugged, as it did the victim in the story.
Anonymous nothing, my name is right there.
I'm not saying Tasers don't work, I'm saying that they work only in the right context - self-defence by an individual is not that context.
Getting a Taser to work properly requires that both probes get a good seat in the subject. A common problem is that only one gets in, or that both get in, but one falls out. In the article you sent me the Officer is clearly dressed only in a light, tight, shirt to ensure a good contact by the Taser probes. That's fine for a demo, but that's not how things go on the street. Now imagine him in loose clothing, layered, telling you to give him the fucking iPod right fucking now and tell me you're willing to bet your life on something as fragile as a Taser.
Here's a thread that illustrates what I'm talking about.
I'm completely willing to give this a shot. If I could convince the PD here to do it, I'd go get it done in a heartbeat. Barring that, if you want to shoot me with a Taser, let me know. Like I said in a previous post, I can get to Washington State pretty easy - maybe down to Oregon, or over to Idaho.
I used to think a lot of things were true that weren't. Popular media likes to hype crap like Stun Guns, but the reality is far different.
Pierre
Parent does make a good point. If one is wearing really thick clothing (like, say, a insulated winter jacket) it's likely that the taser probes won't make good contact. A decent leather jacket may even be enough. Leather is pretty tough.
:) - I've had a few 110 shocks and one much higher, argh) but does anyone here know enough to tell me whether it would work? I'm fairly cognizant with electricity but not enough in the high voltage realms tasers work in.
:)
That said, I've always wondered if a good defense against a taser might not be a conducting layer (worn beneath light upper layer clothing) that is hardy enough to stop and seat the probes, and which is connected to a metal plate at the bottom of one's shoes, thereby grounding the charge. I would think you'd get tingled, but it wouldn't be debilitating.
I've never read about such a thing (and I'm obviously not willing to conduct the experiment
In a self-defense situation, myself, I'd prefer something that can stop them more permanently if necessary - but I'm old-fashioned
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
I find it interesting that someone modded you interesting.
"And the thing you don't realize is this also means the muggers have guns."
If guns are legal then muggers will have guns. If guns are illegal then muggers will have guns. Gun control laws insure that law-abiding citizens will be out-gunned by criminals. The gun control debate is not about whether we allow criminals to carry guns. Criminals will carry guns regardless of the law. Criminals, by definition, break the law. The gun control debate is really about whether it should be legal for potential victims to carry guns.
"Having a gun is useless when a mugger pulls one on you first."
It usually works that way in movies and TV. You might be confusing those things with the real world. The possibility that potential victims and bystanders are armed is a significant deterent to crime. The actual fact of the matter is that victims and bystanders do draw and fire. When I was living in Tennesee two guys in black ski masks pulled up to an all-night convenience in a stolen van, burst in with semi-automatic rifles and opened fire on the clerk. The clerk pulled his pistol and fired five shots; Three bullets into the heart of one assailant and two into the heart of the other.
You seem too focused on this one scenerio of an armed attacker holding up one person in isolation. Armed assailants have no advantage in a crowds where the average citizen is packing. They are immediatly outgunned. You can "get the draw" on one person or perhaps a tightly clustered group of a few people. You can't get the draw on a crowd of people scattered around a bank lobby or convenience store when ordinary citizens are carrying concealed weapons. This goes for city streets and iPods too.
Gun control laws are an aberation created when a society stops taking crime seriously. In a society under threat law-abiding citizens need the right to be as well armed as are their attackers.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.