“Ashley Roberts had an iPod tucked in her pocket when three teens surrounded her in her Scarborough neighbourhood in Toronto,” Zosia Bielski and Jane Armstrong report for The Globe and Mail.
“‘Let me see your iPod,’ one girl demanded, snatching the gadget from Ms. Roberts’s pocket. ‘I think I’m going to take this,’ she gloated, tugging it so hard she pulled the buds from Ms. Roberts’s ears,” Bielski and Armstrong report. “Ms. Roberts, 17, didn’t put up a fight. ‘I would have gotten put in the hospital,’ she said quietly this week.”
MacDailyNews Take: She should’ve used this: Ultimate anti-theft case makes Apple iPods, iPhones look like Microsoft Zunes – July 16, 2007
Bielski and Armstrong continue, “The incident happened two years ago, and the iPod belonged to Ms. Roberts’s friend, 17-year-old Christina McPherson. Despite what happened to Ms. Roberts, Ms. McPherson is defiant: Under ‘no circumstances’ would she give up a gadget that holds 6,000 painstakingly acquired songs, even if it would reduce her chances of being mugged. ‘I’d rather be stabbed than give up my iPod,’ she said.”
“This week, a trial began in Ottawa that has heightened Canadian parents’ concerns about sending their children and teens out of the house with expensive electronic devices such as iPods,” Bielski and Armstrong report. “A youth is charged in the stabbing death of 22-year-old Michael Oatway, an Ottawa man allegedly killed for his girlfriend’s iPod on a city bus.”
“In May, Julien Hernandez, 18, was having an after-school smoke at West End Alternative School on Bloor Street West near Christie Pits park in Toronto when two men came up behind him. Their faces concealed under black bandanas, the men inquired about the school before drawing a knife and cocking a gun at Mr. Hernandez,” Bielski and Armstrong report. “Reaching into his sweater pocket, one man helped himself to the student’s cellphone before swiping his iPod out of his hand. Mr. Hernandez, a ‘movie fiend,’ lost 88 movies and 2,500 songs: ‘There goes my life,’ he said.”
MacDailyNews Note: That’s not how iPods work; if you sync to iTunes, you have a perfect backup. Just connect another iPod, authorize it, and load it with your “88 movies and 2,500 songs.”
Bielski and Armstrong report, “Police call iPod assaults an epidemic, not unlike the spate of violent swarmings in the 1990s where the prizes were expensive running shoes and jackets. But iPods are more valued because one size fits all.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ottawa Mark ” for the heads up.]
In a related article, “San Francisco man risks life for iPhone,” Owen Thomas reports for ValleyWag, “Gene Wood, an operations manager at Ask.com, the Barry Diller-owned search engine beloved by Midwestern moms, wrestled a mugger to the ground rather than lose his iPhone, for which he paid $499. While riding on a subway train in San Francisco and watching a movie, Wood felt a hand reach behind him and snatch the phone. Wood, who is 6 feet tall and weighs 240 pounds, jumped from his seat and pursued the thief. Here’s his harrowing account of how he got his iPhone back through hand-to-hand combat — and got away with just one small, if nasty, head wound.”
Full article here.
This is not a new story, but it bears repeating a bit of advice: Give up your iPod if threatened by a criminal; your life/health is irreplaceable.
Substitute “wallet” or “watch” for “iPod” and you have the same story. Blame the criminal, not the iPod.
One time while working as a bank teller, I got robbed. He only got around $2300 out of me due to requirements to keep a low drawer total…but I gladly gave it up. The fact that he had a gun didn’t affect me one way or another or make me any more nervous…I just knew what I had to do.
Didn’t you also slip in a dye pack, which blew up in the parking lot making that $2300 worthless?
As posted above, Apple also needs a mechanism to make stolen iPods and iPhones worthless for thieves.
freak.
i’ll stab yo ass and take the ipod.
No…it just encourages the criminal to make sure the victim doesn’t report that an iPod was among the stolen items, thus increasing the chance for fatal attacks.
Maybe. Then again, systems like OnStar can track and brick stolen vehicles, yet I haven’t seen any reports of increases in fatal car thefts.
Anyway, I can see high-dollar and easily-chopped items like vehicles driving thieves.
It’d take a real punk to risk getting imprisoned or killed over stealing a stupid iPod!!
El Stupido,
Ever think that some people want their whole collection in one ipod. Not everyone has the same tastes as you. But then again your life revolves around your self and no-one else counts. What a self-centered fool you are!
This article and most of its responses are in very poor taste.
People died. It’s not funny.
If you would rather die than give up a $200 piece of electronic equipment, or even one worth $2000, or anything else you might be carrying, then you should seek help.
As some of you have posted it is always about having a sense of your own personal security.
The number one rule to that really is being aware of your surroundings, even whilst you listen or watch your favourite tunes/movie.
When on public transportation what I do is as I listen to my music on my iPod is to also look at the ads placed around the carriage and keep my head moving around.
That way you look alert, aware and most likely spot someone or a group aiming to approach you.
Most snatchers are opportunists and thrive on having an element of surprise.
In public parks just keep looking around your environment, you’re in a park plenty of stuff to look at other than ads oh and it is unlikely that a snatcher would sit behind a bush or tree waiting for an opportune moment as that would more likely draw attention to themselves from park officials such as the police. Also don’t walk off paths into a secluded area on your own.
HTH
Thankfully I live in India. Haven’t heard of anyone being attacked for an iPod (Stolen unknowingly from your bag? Happens all the time!).
And are these people dumb? With iTunes, Apple has made it so easy to just replace your iPod (mainly cause they want to sell new iPods) that giving up the old one should just be the cost issue.
You make absolutely no valid point. What about most people having a larger collection than their iPod holds? All the media they lost with their iPod would still be on the computer, even if it isn’t all the media they have on the computer. MDN’s take still stands and your comment is just an invalid attack at something you don’t seem to agree with the principal of.
@Another stupid MDN take
Zune Tang®, is that you?
If you would rather die than give up a $200 piece of electronic equipment, or even one worth $2000, or anything else you might be carrying, then you should seek help.
It’s not about money. It’s about not letting yourself get pushed around in today’s aggressive society.
If a mugger is truly whacked and would kill or cause serious harm over whatever you’re carrying, give them what they want. That’s not worth the fight.
But for instances where you’re bullied, as the article appears to be, there’s a case to be made for defending yourself.
Criminals, by nature, are lazy opportunists. They go for the easy targets. Priceless is when an amateur punk misjudges the situation, and finds their intended target isn’t quite so easy!
I think everyone’s missing the point of this article. Apple’s brand loyalty in the younger generation is, well, very high. If you’re willing to give up your life for their products, is a little recession/depression going to stop you buying Apple gear?
Up Apple stock, up!
“If you would rather die than give up a $200 piece of electronic equipment, or even one worth $2000, or anything else you might be carrying, then you should seek help.”
Maybe, but if we all just keep giving up to evil in society, we will just get more evil.
Those of you who disagree with that idea just have not experienced it yet.
@Another stupid….
Didn’t you read my first post? The only way for songs/movies to be on an iPod, is for the user to connect said device to the computer on which they reside. If said device gets stolen, the songs/movies ARE STILL ON THE COMPUTER!
Double-dolt!
These incidents are isolated. More people are mugged for money than they are for iPods. That’s just a common sense fact.
This is why I ignore the “news” and “newspapers”. They are specifically designed to scare people and keep them living in fear. Not me. I refuse to be controlled by the “infotainment” of misery and suffering.
When I die, my future is laid out for me.
Another crap MDN post. Think I’ll print it out. I need something to wipe with.
How many kids were stabbed for their Air Jordan tennis shoes when they were introduced? No news here, jealousy has always been a factor in crime.
Seems to me like this is just one in a long and ever growing list of reasons for the right to legally carry a concealed weapon.
Seems to me like this is just one in a long and ever growing list of reasons for the right to legally carry a concealed weapon.
If you need to carry a weapon, get some training. GOOD training. The kind the cops and armed forces have.
Shooting at paper targets isn’t “training” either. You’ll want training in situation control, ideally through both a simulator and in-person experience.
Anything less only increases your chances of getting killed, or finding your weapon stuck in an uncomfortable orifice….
I strongly believe in fighting back. These punks need to know that they need to at least think twice before they do something – weapon or not. A few getting the $#!T beat out of them and/or getting shot/stabbed with their own weapon oughta do it.
Good advice from the guy who cant think of his own handle. The handling of weapons with live fire experience should be manditory for all school age children. Not only to teach respect but to also establish familiarity. The first experience should not be from a video game or “the Hood”.
MacDailyNews Take: This is not a new story, but it bears repeating a bit of advice: Give up your iPod if threatened by a criminal; your life/health is irreplaceable.
EXACTLY!!!
If you’ve ever seen a ‘real gore’ sight, getting stabbed in the throat will give you nightmares just seeing it happen to someone else.
THIS IS NOT TV!!!! Should remind people to be safe and aware.
” The handling of weapons with live fire experience should be manditory for all school age children”
If I ever wonder what is wrong with the world today, I just have to read these stupid comments in MDN…..sheeeesh
hey…why stop at guns. Why not give them knife training while we are at it. Also first aid on how to stop bleeding from bullet holes, or sutures from lacerations.
@Another stupid MDN take
El Stupido
Oh, and one more thing. That would be “El Estúpido”
¡El Dolto!
Moron.
Buster,
Everyone should know how to safely handle firearms and provide first aid. However, I doubt that many persons older than 18 years of age are knowledgeable. It’s called the wussification of America. Shame, really.
@kzcvbkjzvd
It was the ‘all school ages’ that got to me. Visions of 8 year old boys and girls shooting a firearm is wrong in my opinion (and yes right or wrong it is just an opinion).
I do agree with you however that at all ages, first aid should be taught.