An unbelievable story I read online from a UK newspaper:

http://[url]www.guardian.co.uk/mobile/article/0,2763,658712,00.html[/url]

[b]Be prepared - and be polite [/b]

How to survive phonejacking, by Peter Matthews, age 14

Wednesday February 27, 2002
The Guardian

The story of the 12-year-old girl in Croydon who was stabbed by teenage phone thieves will have confirmed many parents' worst fears. It's a familiar situation to me. I'm 14 and I go to a state school in north London. Over the past year or so, I've had two phones stolen, or "jacked" and I've been threatened with a knife countless times. Someone tries to jack me probably every week.

Most parents, including mine, would like their kids to come straight home. I prefer to hang around in the street with my friends. Although this makes me a natural target, I've found some ways to deal with the situation.

The most important rule is to give up your phone rather than get hurt. It's also best to avoid a confrontation in the first place. I would never walk down the road playing with my phone. It shows you have something worth stealing.

It helps to spot trouble before it happens. My friends and I are "trendies". We wear American-type skateboarders' clothes: hoodies and baggy trousers. The kids who jack mobile phones we call "rudes" - rude boys. They're working class, mainly black, though not always, and at the moment they wear these funny woolly hats with two bobbles, and big jackets with fur-lined hoods. (Obviously, only a minority of kids who dress like this go jacking phones.) Kids from all backgrounds get robbed; it's unusual for rudes to jack girls, though this is what seems to have happened in Croydon. Mostly, they get girls to jack girls.

On the whole, rudes don't cross the road to jack you - they try to get you to walk over to them. So avoid eye contact and develop bad hearing. Don't respond to "Oi mate, got a cigarette?" or "Do you want to buy a draw?" If you look like the sort of kid who wouldn't be interested in this kind of offer, they'll ask you the time, hoping you'll be naive enough to pull out your phone.

Should you run away? Yes, if you're fast on your feet. But it's a very bad idea to run and then get caught, as it will: a) tell them you've got something worth taking; and b) annoy them.

If you stand your ground, the conversation is likely to start like this.

Rude: "Oi blud, wanna buy a draw?"

Me: "I don't have any money, sorry."

Always say you don't have any money and always be polite. It's bad manners to say you don't smoke pot - you risk a punch in the face. This way you haven't ruled out buying weed at a future date.

Rude: "Cool, cool, take down my number."

Me: "Yeah, safe [pulling out pen and paper]."

Rude: "No, no, take it in your phone, I don't want you to lose it."

Me: "Sorry mate, I don't have a phone. It got jacked."

Strangely enough, he's likely to sympathise and offer to track down the culprit. But if he doesn't buy this sad story you're into the unfriendly jacking scenario. He'll mention that he's got a "borer" - a folding knife. Nine times out of 10 they don't, but you don't want to find out.

Bad luck: a rude has just discovered your hidden phone. This is how I lost my first phone. It was a tall kid who was able to look straight down into my side pocket.

Rude: "Why did you lie to me?" (Silly question.)

Me: (Incoherent mumble.)

Rude's friend: "Allow him, man." (In other words, let him off lightly.)

There is a code of honour - as in the rule that only girls jack girls - plus usually there's quite a bit of ego involved. Though when I recently tried to use this to my advantage, the kid said: "I'm jacking you. I'm not your friend. I'll bruk you up." (Luckily, he didn't.)

But when I lost my first phone, the rudes were pretty chivalrous. In fact, they seemed to be familiar with the fashionable idea that criminals should apologise to their victims. When they offered compensation, though, it was probably to discourage me from reporting them to the police.

Rude's friend: "Do you want a bike for it? But it's got a flat tire."

Me: "Nah man, I'm cool."

A stolen bike with a flat tire wasn't that tempting. And I was already late for my English tutor.