Now it seems like they're just reaching for stuff to catch people screwing around.

They left bags with brand new Ipods around, and filmed people picking them up and walking away. Then, they traced these people when they registered online and confronted them with the video. Chris Hansen was just as self-righteous as when he's talking to the perverts.

Next week: TO CATCH A JAYWALKER!

I saw part of this. They keep talking about how the ipod was "lifted", but really they left an unopened ipod in public. Bags in parking lots, and shopping malls.

I mean, yes it is stealing, but isn't partially the fault of whomever left it behind? If I left my sunglasses on a park bench and came back to find them missing, I wouldn't say "Somebody stole my glasses!" I would think that I was a dumbass and left them behind. It is not like these kids were breaking into cars, taking them from store shelves, or ripping them off a jogger.

You could have repeated the process with a DVD, a pair of shoes, or probably even a box of gummi bears.

Then they go to the Apple Store: "Do you help reunite people with their lost ipods?" Yeah right!

I caught a few minutes of this, and I thought it was genius. Without the IM conversations, they can catch twice as many people. They don't need Perverted Justice! All they have to do is leave a plain looking 20 year old pretending to be a hot little 14 year old in a bag. If someone picks it up, Chris Hansen has something to tell them.

They should have engraved someones name and address on the back of the ipod and see how many people give it back. Only bust the ones that didn't. Tracking them down because they found a new ipod in a box is dumb.

I was waiting for "...and how old was the iPOD that you stole?"

I watched the first part of it. But what they were doing didn't make much sense. They were buying Ipods. Then they were replacing the original software disk with a disk of their own. So when you tried to register it you were actually connecting to them to give them your info. Well, duh, you should be able to catch people if you are doing it that way.

To me doing that didn't prove a damn thing.

^ Yeah, it didn't make much sense. What about used iPods? Don't know about anyone else but I don't carry around the installation disc; of course, mine didn't even come with one in the first place...

Have a seat....

If i find a $100 bill on the floor and noone was around, i'm gonna take it. If I find an ipod left by someone, and I wait around a few minutes (which some of the "theives" did) and noone comes for it, I'm gonna take it. I'm not a theif. This show was a huge stretch. stick to cathing baby rapers nbc.

By definiation, this is stealing. The ethical thing to do is turn these things in when you find them. (Moreso the ipod than the cash).Agreed, you're not a "theif". You are a thief, however, if you would keep an iPod somebody left around.

A few years ago this woman dropped her iPod as she was leaving the PO. I literally ran after her saying "Miss, your Ipod!!" and waiving it around. She RAN, (I mean, booked) to get away from me like I was crazy or something. I wasn't about to give chase, so I went back to the PO and gave them my card and told them to have her call me if she came back. I checked in with them every week for about 3 months before deciding to put it up on eBay.

You might ask why I didn't just give to the PO people. That answer is simple, as they told me directly, they would have kept it for themselves.

I don't consider myself a thief. I would have gladly returned the iPod to her even after she ran from me in terror. I held onto it for 3 months before doing anything with it, and checked back with the PO weekly. At that point, I have to figure that it's mine baby.

I wasn't surprised that so many people ended up stealing it, as was mentioned in a previous post, I think they could have left anything of value laying around and done the same show. I got the feeling that they ended up having to sit around for a long time to get so much tape. When they were in Las Vegas it looked like they set the bag on top of a trash can in one instance and right next to a trash can in another. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't getting enough footage of people stealing the iPod so they decided to increase the odds a little.

I didn't see the show but where was the ipod left? If it was on a park bench or something where are you suppose to turn it in at?

Of course, you forgot to mention you were wearing only cowboy boots and a Speedo at the time.

What they were trying to prove is that Apple could track down stolen Ipods if they wanted to. The software Apple distributes with Ipods asks for the same information as the Dateline disk. They werent able to get Apple to cooperate and let them use their database, so they had to make their own.

She probably stole it from somebody else in the post office.

lol. I actually BOUGHT mine at Best Buy (yeah, heard that one before).

Kind of off-topic, do they come with installation CDs anymore because I had to download iTunes and the software...

Benches inside malls, food courts, on top of parked cars, on the Vegas strip.

They also left one on the dashboard of a convertible in front of a high school.

And you're right, unless it was inside the mall, where would you turn it in? Heck, in your local shopping mall, do you even know where the lost & found or the main office is? I sure don't.

And like above, would you actually trust the minimum wage "customer service" people at the mall to keep it behind the counter until somebody came for it? You could ask for a receipt, but that still won't ensure anything.

What if somebody came back and asked for it?
Loser: "I lost my ipod"
Mall employee: "Can you describe it?"

I actually saw it fall out of her bag.

Why is it apples job to help you track down your stolen ipod?

And these ipods were stolen BEFORE they were ever registered to the legit owner. How would that help apple track it down? If I stole your ipod before you ever got it home and registered it how would apple know it was YOUR ipod?

If you don't plan to use iTunes do you even need to ever register it and have it connect on the net? I don't have an ipod but if I did I would probbably not buy songs from iTunes. I already have a lot of my CD's in mp3 format so all I would want to do is transfter them to the ipod. Do you need to register to do that?

Which is why they were only able to track down 12 of the 20 ipods.

Goes to show you how many people out there are willing to take stuff that they know they really have no right to. and the number of people that would rather do this than work to earn stuff for themselves. It also shows you how big of a theft problem the Ipod has become whether it is a brand new one or a used one with lots of personal stuff on it.

...or, it goes to show you how far these shows are willing to go with staging and manipulating people and actually *creating* phony crimes, all for the sake of so-called entertainment.

A website tested peoples honesty this way

They got people on hidden cameras finding the 'bait wallet'

...Each of the 100 wallets contained $2.10 in real money, a fake $50.00 gift certificate, some miscellaneous items and a clearly written ID card identifying the lost wallet's rightful owner. We were curious as to how honest people would be and wanted to see how different groups would compare to each other. For example, who would return the wallets more often... men or women? Young or old?

http://www.wallettest.com/