iPhone-Loving Robbers Leave Android Phones Unpilfered
iPhone-Loving Robbers Leave Android Phones Unpilfered
Posted 12/15/2011 at 12:23pm
| by Brad Chacos
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Want to avoid getting mugged? Buy an Android phone – or even better yet, a Blackberry. No, they don’t have any crazy criminal-prevention apps or burglar whistles built in; thieves just don’t want them. Or at least one pair of thieves in Manhattan don’t want them. Apparently, two robbers have been accosting Columbia University students for their iPhones. No other phone will do! The crooks even let one victim keep a perfectly good Droid, police say.
The robbers still snatched the poor Droid owner’s cash, the local NBC station reports, but at least he could call the cops on his black sheep phone afterwards. A second victim was thrown against a fence and searched after she said she didn’t have an Apple handset, while a third separate victim had actually had an iPhone and was left unharmed after turning it over.
The NBC team asked Columbia students what they thought of the snobbery robberies. “It's insulting they don't want my BlackBerry,” one student responded, while another said that frankly, she didn’t like her BlackBerry either and was pocketing her pennies to buy an iPhone herself.
Image credit: theiloop.com
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bling581
December 16, 2011 at 10:41am
Probably because they know what they're getting. There's how many dozens of different Android phones so unless they're really really tech saavy they might be grabbing some cheapy unpopular phone instead of a good one. Not like they really have time to look it up or examine it.
graydiggy
December 16, 2011 at 7:30am
This makes me think... What if they aren't stealing them to re-sell them? What if they are taking them and destroying them? Maybe making videos or just to show that they hate Apple.
If I were a robber and going around stealing phones to re-sell, I would go android. Market for those is much higher. If I were going around stealing iPhones, Id be doing it to break them just for funsies. I love android and I know the market for them.
Keith E. Whisman
December 15, 2011 at 4:38pm
Take a look at how muck iphone 4$ handsets are sellinh for on ebay an craigslist and you will understand why they want iphones. my 32gb black iphone 4$ can fetch upwards of $700 dollars. Thats why they are being targeted. iphone$ are just about worth their weight in uh, silver?
Phrish
December 15, 2011 at 2:50pm
"But if it looks the same, how will people know I'm stealing the right one?"
stradric
December 15, 2011 at 1:37pm
Ha! This validates one of the reasons I don't buy ultra-popular products. Gimme a generic thing that gets the job done over a shiny, fragile, overpriced version any day.
Apple would denounce these acts publicly, but you know they are secretly smiling that people are getting mugged over their products. It happened with the iPod too and law enforcement started suggesting using something other than the white stock headphones in order to let thieves think you had a Zune or something.
It happens with macbooks too, which is really a shame because the markup on those is ridiculous.
Drew7
December 15, 2011 at 1:24pm
To start, yes... I am a BlackBerry owner. And yes... I am also a "PC". So this little rant is extremely biased ::grin:: . That said; I am also a business owner, which is why I chose BlackBerry. And what was my buying decision based-on? One simple truth~ BlackBerry is where "smartphones" all began. R.I.M. (Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry) have more experience than any of them, and it's because of that very simple fact that they manufacture a solid product. And I mean literally "solid"; Even the construction of a BlackBerry will far out-last any iPhone. Drop an iPhone... It's history. Drop a BlackBerry... It wants more. You can't open-up your iPhone to add memory to it. You can with a BlackBerry. In my own personal opinion, it's just an over-all more "solid" product. The only reason R.I.M. is being out-sold by Apple is because "the market" is full of teenagers, and people in their 20's - early 30's who just want something "pretty". Which is fine... There's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to go with the wear-and-tear that goes along with "serious business"... BlackBerry, all the way. Drew :) NOTE: This was not an argument for robbers to start stealing BlackBerry smartphones... Oh no. Steal all the iPhones you want! Lol !!
kixofmyg0t
December 15, 2011 at 3:22pm
I've had two Blackberry dumbphones in my life, I totally disagree with using the word "smartphone" to describe a Blackberry. My 8100 Pearl was ok for 3 months then the trackball stopped working. Last year I bought a Storm2....over a Droid X(HUGE mistake and I later bought the DX to replace the Storm)
It lasted 6 months before the screen gave out and stopped working. Got a warrenty replacement, touchscreen didn't work out of the box. Screw that. My Storm2 was pristine before it just decided one day to take a crap on me. Never had it in a case, nor did I need a screen protector. Never dropped it.
I actually hated that thing about a month after I bought it. It would random reboot about 4 to 5 times a day.....oh god and Blackberry reboot time is HORRIBLE!!!! 9 minutes.....Really? It takes 9 minutes to reboot a stupid phone? Why?!?!!?
Besides that, it was slow, the browser was complete garbage and had less app selection than even a Windows Phone.
RIM shareholders are suggesting RIM sell off it's handset bussiness for good reason. Blackberry's are garbage.
Yep sounds like a real "solid" product alright.
win7fanboi
December 15, 2011 at 1:28pm
Try a quality android phone. I am still using my Google Nexus One without any issues. The pleasant surprises keep coming :
- no, it doesn't have carrierIQ crap on it.
- yes, I can make it into a wifi hotspot without rooting (jailbreaking) it or paying the carrier.
- yes, it is one of the first handsets to get any OS/security updates.
- yes, I have dropped it many times and it doesn't even have a scratch on it.
So yea, there ya go. Get a decent 20$ case and experience the joy of a having a device that can entertain you, let you open office docs, pdfs, text, email, social networking, function as a gps, automatically backup your data to your google account, has voice activated searches, google music that lets you keep your music in the cloud and not take up sd card space, etc.
Keith E. Whisman
December 16, 2011 at 3:53pm
You can do that with an Iphone 4$ as well but it'll cost a little bit more money each month. You get the benefits of a smart phone that is literally made of glass that is promised to shatter on the front and back the first time you drop it.
Anyone got the Iphone 4$ just ask SIRI to "beam me up Scotty" and she wiill reply with "energising" or "stand still"
My android phones never gave me a response to that question.
win7fanboi
December 20, 2011 at 9:41am
Can't argue with the fun you can have with Siri :)
http://www.maclife.com/article/features/chat_siri
To me iPhone design is elegant but little too feminine. Also, they don't have useful basic functionality like widgets. If I want to turn Wifi on/off I have to go in Settings>Wifi>Turn on/off (there might be another step in there, it's been a while since I messed with my wife's iPhone 4$ so I don't remember). To do the same on my phone I tap the Wifi icon, done.
Drew7
December 15, 2011 at 1:38pm
Cool. Sounds like another "quality product" with a lot of great features. But another reason why I stick to my BlackBerry is also because of my carrier- Virgin Mobile. For $35/mo... NO CONTRACT... I get unlimited web, text, and I can tether my BlackBerry as a modem for the internet... At no penalties or extra cost. But I will admit~ I would like a nice large screen for media entertainment.
graydiggy
December 16, 2011 at 7:26am
You can get a pay as you go type android pone as well. With 5 times the power of a bumberry and less than a quarter of issues.
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