[photopress:ipodthefturb.jpg,full,center]
Steal this player
It’s real simple—if you don’t wanna get robbed, don’t walk around bad neighborhoods with the standard iPod earbuds on. You’re just asking for trouble. I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about that.
A recently released study from a DC think tank kinda suggests that iPods may be responsible for an uptick in robberies in 2005 and 2006. The same study readily admits that there’s not enough statistical evidence to say with any real authority that iPods and other portable devices are in any way responsible for the increase. So basically, you have a study that says, in so many words, “maybe.”
Usually, property crime and robbery rates are directly related, but during the years in question only robbery rates increased. Hence, the half-idea that iPods and the like could be responsible.
I used to walk around New York like a dumb college student with my iPod all the time. I might as well have had a giant “MARK” sign on my back. Nothing ever happened and I’ve since ditched the iPod. What a post that would have made, though—Nicholas was robbed today.
Original Study (PDF) [Urban Institute via Ars Technica]