Teens willing to risk own safety to defend iPods from muggers

TORONTO—To some they’re a status symbol while to others they represent a temporary escape from the humdrum of life.
For thieves looking for a quick and valuable score, however, those ubiquitous white ear buds dangling from the heads of so many teenagers simply mean loot.

Yet while it’s no big secret among youth that iPods are prize plunder for crooked types, many say they’d risk their own safety to save their beloved portable music players if they were targeted.
“I’d fight them back, or run. And yell, or something,” said Adam McDowell, 21, who said he’s definitely heard of “people getting jumped” for the popular gadget.
Yet the 6’2” Mississauga resident shrugs when asked why he’s not afraid he’ll become a victim. “I just don’t worry about it. I’m just tall, I guess,” he reasoned.
Having purchased his stylish device about three weeks ago with his own cash, he looks pained when asked why his iPod is so important.
“The value,” he said. “I don’t just want to hand it over.”
But whether they like it or not, youth are being forced to do just that as the creme de la creme of MP3 players becomes the latest hot-ticket item for bad guys.
Another victim was added this weekend to a group of at least five others being mugged of their iPods over the last two weeks in Toronto, in what police have described as “random” attacks.
The rash of thefts comes at the same time a youth is being tried for first-degree murder in Ottawa under allegations his motive revolved around scoring the slain man’s iPod. There are reports the man refused to give up the item because it belonged to his girlfriend.
“The iPod to the teenager is the baby to the mother,” said Gary Direnfeld, a child-behaviour expert and social worker based in Dundas, Ont.
“These kids are so invested in their music and in their playlists, it’s like they put their identity into their song selection,” he explained. “So you’re not just stealing a device, to them you’re stealing an identity.”
Meghan Hellstern, 19, who lives in Ottawa, said her reaction to someone demanding her iPod would depend on the situation.
“If it was in a public area, I’d probably just say ‘screw off,”’ she said, though adding, “No iPod is worth your life.”
While iPods may be the fashionable booty of the moment, there’s a long history of teenagers ganging up on each other for goods. In the 1990s, the trend was nabbing Chicago Bulls jackets and Nike Air Jordan sneakers.
“[Perpetrators] actually choose their victims, it’s not as random as it looks,” said criminologist Raymond Corrado at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
Nowadays, muggings often play out with several teens swarming someone about their age but who looks more vulnerable, Corrado said. And while their approach to robbery is more “amateur”—where both perpetrator and victim tell their friends—it likely helps the phenomenon to grow.
Because the devices are so coveted, they also represent easy money for thieves who can sell the product, worth hundreds, for a fraction of the price—often, in the school yard.
Police in Toronto and Peel Region, just to the west, along with those in Vancouver and Edmonton, have watched iPod thefts become a fairly regular occurrence, though none are ready to call it an epidemic.
They encourage iPod users to replace the signature headphones with cheaper ones, to pay attention to personal safety, and to report the crime.
Still, teens who know others that have fallen victim to the trend say they can’t count on the cops.
“What can they really do, they’re not going to go after them,” said R.J. Garcia, 18, as his three friends nodded vigorously in agreement. “They’ll probably be, like, ‘Awww, too bad for you.’”