iPod Crime Still Increasing: How to Protect Your iPod from Street Thieves

Are iPod robberies continuing to rise? Although according to the FBI's preliminary Uniform Crime Report, the rate of overall robbery decreased 1.2 percent in the first six months of 2007, very recent reports from San Diego, Long Beach, Berkeley, San Francisco, Calif., and Great Britain, indicate iPod robberies in 2007 and 2008 are still rising from the dramatic statistical increase that occurred in 2005 and 2006.

As reported on July 31, 2008 by the British newspaper The Mail, in Great Britain one in every eight children has been mugged for a mobile phone or MP3 player or had the valuable item stolen and in Washington, DC, iPod robberies on the subway system accounted for almost 1 in 20 robberies citywide during the first four months of 2007 alone, compared to less than 1 in 100 in 2005.

The correlation between violent crime increase and the iPod was originally suggested by researchers John Roman and Aaron Chalfin in their report "Is There an iPod Crime Wave?" . The report said that iPod popularity and its appeal to criminals translated into more robberies (a crime where force, or threat of force is used) and higher violent crime rates. FBI crime statistics for those years, showed a violent crime increase in 2005 and 2006 and seemed to support the report's analysis.

The iPod crime wave was first reported by the media in March, 2008 when the report was released. The report was supported by the numbers. For example, in the first three months of 2005, major felonies rose 18 percent on New York City's subways; but if iPod and cell phone thefts were not counted, the total number of major felonies actually declined 3 percent from 2004.

The report led some cities to take action. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority began warning riders that iPod "earphones are a giveaway. Protect your device." Signs and warnings of a similar nature appeared in the mass transit systems in San Francisco.