I AM NOT SURE if this is 100% true but I read it on the mac Addict board.
I was walking home in south Phoenix. I had just purchased a used iMac from a freind and was walking home with it, carrying the iMac in front of me and the peripherals in my backpack.
Now the summer in Phoenix is hot, real hot. The temperature is normally well over 100 degrees, and that's a cool day. Everything you touch is hot. I Phoenix when we wait at an intersection, no one ever pushes the button for the walk signal, because you'll burn your finger. You can fry eggs on the sidewalk, your car, even your iMac. So you know why I wanted to get home fast.
So I was hot and sweaty, it was hard to grip the iMac, it was so slippery. Walking home, I turned the corner and standing there was this really seedy looking dude. Long, dark, dirty hair, torn-up jeans and t-shrt, Terminator sunglasses.
He took a long look at me, and then my iMac and sneered. "What the Hell is that thing?" he wanted to know.
"Well, it's an iMac," I told him, and then proceeded to list the iMac's technical specs like USB, G3 processor, and several advantages it has over similar Wintel machines.
I had just finished telling him about the several exciting software titles that came bundled with the iMac when I noticed he hadn't said anything. He stood there in front of me, staring, his mouth agape, and sweat dripping down his face. We stood there looking at each other for what seemed the longest time. I began to get nervous.
"It looks like a goddamn gumdrop," he finally said. "Does it play Tetris? Does it have a floppy drive?" He was still somewhat undecided, I guess.
Yeah, it sure does," I said, reassuring him that all his favorite games were available for Macintosh users. "I don't know who makes it, but I know it's out there."
I was about to tell him the iMac didn't come with a floppy drive, but there were third-party, aftermarket USB solutions available when he interrupted me.
"Yeah? Well, I think I'm just going to have to get one of these things," he said.
I was just about to tell him the several Sears, CompUSA, and Fry's Electronics locations we have in the Valley, when he suddenly lunged toward and grabbed at my iMac. I was surprised, I had both hands full holding this iMac and was loaded down with a backpack full of peripherals. You know, mouse, keyboard, USB hub, etc.
He pushed me back and kept trying to rip the iMac out of my arms, but I held on for dear life. I kicked him in the shins a couple of times, but he just grunted and kept on at me. I tried to kick him again, but lost my balance and fell down. I hit hard, the wind knocked out of me. I lay on my back on the ground. I could feel the USB hub poking at me through my backpack.
He stood over me, leaned down and cocked his fist back to punch me in the face.
"You gonna give this thing up, or what?" he yelled at me.
"You can have my Mac when you pry it from my cold, dead hands," I growled through my teeth.
He smiled, stood up over me, and straigtened his pantswaist.
"Well, if that's the way you want it," he said to me.
He took a couple steps back, reached behind his back and into his waistband and pulled out a gun. A black semi-automatic something or other, I couldn't really tell what brand it was, but it was something that had a big bore. This was when I started to get scared.
"So, I can't have it?" he asked.
"Well, no," I told him.
"Fine."
And he shot me. I heard only the one shot go off, but that was the only thing I heard. After that I was deafened by the sound of the blast. I could see him pull the trigger repeatedly, five or six times. I could feel the punch of the bullets as they ricocheted off the iMac's polycarbonate case that I gripped so tightly in front of my chest and buried themselves in ground next to me.
By this time, several people nearby were beginning to run over to my aid. The gunman took a look around, he made one last grab at my iMac, but I was able to kick him again, and he ran.
The Phoenix police department and Sherrif Joe Arpaio's Posse, fine officers they are, never found him. Tthey told me how lucky I was, they didn't have to, I KNEW. The gunman had shot at me six times with at .45, as they had found out by digging the bullets out of the ground. I was never hit. Except for one bullet that grazed my wrist, they all ricocheted off the iMac, barely scratching the Bondi Blue polycarbonate case.
To this day, I wear an iMac mouse around my neck as a good luck charm. So, if any of you are ever wondering whether an iBook is a good purchase or not, take my advice: Buy two, and stuff them in your shirt. You never know where the next gunman lurks.