How to keep your iPod thug-proof

What’s wrong with this picture? Actually, nothing (if you forget the fact it’s a little dark). Though my iPod, as pictured here, is missing its iconic white earbuds and thus, some of its design panache, it’s got something much better: an anti-theft device consisting of an old, cheap pair of headphones from a Sony Walkman. I went rummaging through my box of old headphones last night after reading that iPods are behind a recent surge in crime on New York’s subways. (Well, the iPods aren’t actually engaging in a self-initiated crime wave, they are being stolen by teenagers who can, of course, tell an iPod owner from the far end of a subway car because of the earbuds.) Of course, the thought of switching to circa 1980s headphones creates a modern-day conundrum and I’m not quite sure I can go through with it; what’s more valuable, being seen as one of New York’s millions of neo-hipster Pod people, or my $350 music player and its weird collection of songs that only I could love?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

March 30, 2005 | Permalink