Last Sunday, I gave my wife an iPad 2 for her birthday. She’s been wanting one for a while now, mostly for reading textbooks.
Today she called me in tears- she was eating lunch at the Subway just around the corner from her office, reading a book… and a guy ran in, grabbed the iPad, and then ran out. She didn’t even get a good look at the guy.
She talked to the cops, and while she did that I remote-locked it. It’s not 3G, so we had to wait 'til the jerk tried to log into a wifi, which he did about thirty minutes later. I know the rough location where he tried to log in, but nothing specific.
I doubt we’ll get it back. She’s heartbroken, so I imagine we’ll get her a replacement. Insurance will only pay for about half of it, after the deductible… but at least we won’t have to pay full price for a new one.
She’s pretty shaken by the entire thing, so I imagine tonight will not be fun. I was just thinking the other day that we’ve actually been quite lucky as far as crime goes, so I’m glad it was just a quick grab-and-dash.
Damn. I teach in a pretty tough neighborhod and I always read from my I-Pad during lunch. I am very conscious about not leaving it unattended for even a few seconds, but I never thought someone would be brazen enough to walk right up to me and try to snatch it.
Geez, that’s awful. When it comes to displaying very popular high-tech gear in public, I just remember the case where a man lost part of his finger when a thief attacked him for his iPad -he’d just bought it and was carrying that distinctive box in the Apple Store bag, and the handles of it were wrapped or tied around his fingers. The thief just kept yanking until he got the bag. :eek:
But considering how many reports of muggings I’ve seen around here lately, you don’t even have to be displaying anything to be mugged. Some people just suck.
Something similar happened to a friend of a friend. Except, instead having her iPad stolen while reading it at a sandwich shop, she had it stolen when she took it out to blog about the police crackdown on the Occupy Oakland movement. While she was standing in the middle of the crackdown.
She was absolutely floored that, in the middle of a riot, someone would steal her expensive consumer electronics. Poor girl has the survival skills of a retarded lemming.
See? See? America is going into the shitter. Why I remember when riots were fun family affairs that you would bring your children and puppies to to get some ice cream and balloons.
Too bad they don’t have an app that you could access remotely, which takes a nice, clear photo of the idiot’s face using the front camera when it detects activity on the tablet. Odds are still slim you’d get your device back, but at least it would give police something to use.
Hmm. Guess I should’ve searched before I posted that, because apparently there ARE apps that do just that, but it looks like you need a jailbroken device to use them.
Was thinking about this the other day. On the one hand its got to be kind of a crummy time to be a mugger or pickpocket, since people carry less and less cash around with them as debit cards and the like become the norm. On the other hand, we also carry around portable electronics worth several hundred dollars, so I guess they can make up the difference in latops and smartphones.
But its got to be kind of a pain in the butt for a mugger to try and cash out a used Ipad or whatever, as compared to just getting a wallet full of bills.
I hate to be the “coulda been worse” guy, because I know how much this kind of thing can piss you off. What happened truly does suck. But at least the cocksucker didn’t physically hurt your wife.
Open some good wine (or whatever you enjoy) tonight, toast to each other’s health and enjoy the new iPad you’re about to get. I’m sorry you’re out a few bucks, but I’m glad you’re only out a few bucks.
Seconded.
On a related note, I wouldn’t be terribly opposed to a “chop off the hand” type of punishment for theft, in this country.
Albeit, with some modifications to the way it’s currently imposed/implemented.
Oh, yeah. We went out for dinner and a movie last night to take her mind off of it, and we agreed that it could’ve been much worse- this was in downtown Baltimore, after all. We’ve been together for over twenty years, and this is the first crime we’ve experienced, so we’ve both gotten off lucky.
After that one attempted login, we haven’t seen any further attempts. I imagine at this point it’s either smashed or in a dumpster… or the thief is techsavvy enough to reset it from a locked screen (I imagine it’s somehow possible).
Anyway, we’re going to get insurance to cover it, so my wife’ll get a new one- maybe in time for the iPad3 to be announced, if we’re lucky. I doubt she’ll take it to work with her anymore, though… kind of defeating the purpose of the thing.
When it comes to displaying very popular high-tech gear in public, I just remember the case where a 