iPod: This Season's Must-Have for Muggers 993
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.
Yeah, or the thief may have just asked... (Score:5, Interesting)
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."
More FUD (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
muggings (Score:4, Interesting)
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"
Oh shut up, geek. (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, or the thief may have just asked... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The Next Apple Innovation (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Mugging (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:The Next Apple Innovation (Score:3, Interesting)
Entrepreneurs anyone??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Technically I think this would be a neat feature Apple could integrate into .Mac for all it's products.
Re:The solution to the dying iPod battery is ... (Score:1, Interesting)
Surely that was said in jest!
Seriously though, I bet Apple are loving this - how much more hype could you want! Let's all say it together....
MOD PARENT UP. HEALTHY COUNTERPOINT (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Mugging (Score:5, Interesting)
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"?
Re:You can have my iPod when..... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The white headphones were genius... (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [akg.com]. 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.
Re:Mugging (Score:2, Interesting)
My name's Bernie Goetz , beeeeotch! (Score:2, Interesting)
fickle editors (Score:3, Interesting)
And someone needs to reboot images-aud.slashdot.org so my little mozilla firefoxy thingy stops spinning.
Re:hrm... (Score:2, Interesting)
I was told it is like that, because muslims used to consider that showing off wealth was bad, because it incites other people to commit a sin. So, showing off makes you partially responsible for the other person lost soul.
(I know: tourist guides are not reliable sources, but it still is a cool idea).
Re:West Midlands (Score:5, Interesting)
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...
Re:Mugging (Score:5, Interesting)
Why people get mugged? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Mugging (Score:2, Interesting)
So tell me where to find you and we'll see if it tingles.
Re:Mugging (Score:2, Interesting)
When I was around 6, my uncles decided that it would be fun to give me a metal hook(like the kind used on tow chains), and tell me to go and put it on the little wire running around the field in the back. I did. Note: the hook prevents you from losing contact with the fence. The cramping muscles keep you from letting go of the hook. Nuff said.
Re:Mugging (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [selfdefenseforums.com] 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
Re:Mugging (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Mugging (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Mugging (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:aren't the units registered? (Score:3, Interesting)
So build the capability into it, but don't turn it on by default. Let users know they can. Those who want it, will. Those who don't, won't.
Let those paranoid enough have their choice, yet let those of us who don't want it have it completely disabled. Fair enough?
(I hate the whole damned idea of tracking, too, but some people won't - or don't, at least with respect to stolen laptops, eh?)
SB
Re:The white headphones were genius... (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, I usually use a pair of Sennheisers with my mini (the headphones cost about as much as the iPod, heh), the sound is great, but how the hell do you feel more down to earth toting a pair of studio headphones?
Now, the advertising/trend following aspect is a valid point, although most tradeshow shirt-clad geeks (myself included- I only use the sennheisers for sound quality and isolation) won't give it a second thought.
Re:The white headphones were genius... (Score:2, Interesting)
The folks who are likely to mug you recognise a very clear profile when you've got on particularly fancy gear, and a dude with an ipod also tends to broadcasts body language that they pick up like a homing beacon and they'll be circling like vultures in no time. On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone with money for an ipod in my humble hood so this must apply to muggings pulled by bored suburban mini-eminems.
Re:Mugging (Score:2, Interesting)
I really doubt you could 'power on through' the stun effect. But if that fails, Succinylcholine [fpnotebook.com] always works. Always.
Re:Mugging (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a case -- from Toronto -- of a man doing just what was described as impossible by Mythbusters. Did they control for saline content? It was determined that the high saline content of this man (must have been dehydrated) allowed the arc. It had previously been thought a suicide.
(and just for fun, in the telling that is, another man tied a dagger to his radiator point-up and stabbed himself 7 times in the head -- in this case, ruled a homicide because they figured no one could possibly manage this feat -- wrong again)
DW
Re:LOL (Score:5, Interesting)
DIE DIE DIE! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The solution to the dying iPod battery is ... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Bear Spray (Score:3, Interesting)
I was hiking once, and got near a mom and cubs (I saw a cub dart up a tree and heard a big thing coming through the brush). I took off the other way, pulling out my bear spray as I ran*. When I got it out, I turned around and saw nothing. The bear was just fronting a little. But I walked backwards for a while, away from that spot.
Here's the point of my story: I realised that I had never even tested the thing to see if it worked. So I pointed it downwind (I'm not an idiot, but the wind was very slight), and let loose as short a burst as possible. Then, satisfied tha tit worked, I walked away -- upwind -- and a few seconds later had trouble breathing for the sharp peppery shit that burned my sinuses. It soon cleared up, but I couldn't imagine getting a facefull of that stuff. Seems like it'd stop anyone. Of course, I've never been up against anyone on PCP...
*I later learned, there's literally a 1 in a million chance of getting mauled by a bear. You really don't need bear spray when you're hiking.
Re:make sure you actually have the ipod... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The white headphones were genius... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have friends in a similar situation to yours. My friend originally shunned the iPod, saying he'd never pay that much money for a music toy. But now he's gave in and bought one (and totally loves it, of course). But he feels like such a trend follower that he won't wear the white headphones.