"Help! I'm being mugged"

My thoughts on the muggings happening in Home Park (by Home Park I mean the general area bounded by 10th, 14th, State street and Hemphill avenue). This does not deal with armed home robberies, which I plan to think about later, as that is rarer than muggings.

Cure (by which I mean you are already being threatened by a stranger to give all your belongings, and you do not want to submit to being mugged)

• Carry a gun - Will definitely lead to a gun fight in which I am certain not to have an upper hand
• Taser - The mugger most likely has his finger on the trigger and I do not want to force an involuntary reflex due to a gazillion volt charge
• Run fast if being mugged - Bullets are faster than you, unless you are Rajnikanth
• Shout - I don't think I am going to dare doing that with a gun pointed to my face/back
• Talk your way out of it - Yeah, right.

Prevention (by which I mean how to avoid being mugged)

• Do not go venture out during the night - There have been many muggings during the day
• Do not go out. Period. - I have to go to classes. And there have been plenty of home invasions
• Do not carry anything valuable - This is definitely not going to stop you being mugged as the mugger has no way of knowing that you do not have a ton of cash on you.
• Don't walk alone - This will definitely help ward of the amateur and lone mugger. But there have definitely been group muggings so not guaranteed to help you.
• Ask the police to drop you - The Georgia Tech/Atlanta police know that Home Park is not safe. So if you see a police car standing on your way, do not hesitate to ask them to drop you off home. A good opening like would be "How are you doing today, officer? I am a bit scared to be walking all alone at this time. I live down this street near the church. Would you mind driving with me/keeping an eye on the road/giving me a ride till I reach home. And thank profusely when obliged.
• Be alert - This is the best prevention strategy. Make sure you keep looking all around you especially in those dark nooks and corners of Home Park. Make sure no one is following you. Make sure you know the phone number of the Georgia Tech police, and make sure it is on speed dial. Better still, keep talking to some person till you reach home. If you see anything suspicious like a potential mugger 100 meters in front of you, stop, and get the hell out of there. Better safe than sorry as the saying goes.

Damage-control (this lies between the above 2 things)

• Do not carry anything valuable - Most of the times I cannot avoid carrying a laptop and a phone. Also, if I do not carry anything, my theory is that it will infuriate an already nervous mugger
• Carry some cash, give all your belongings and do not act smart - This I think is a safe strategy. But the question is how much cash is enough? I think around 10-15 dollars should suffice. And that much is a good premium to pay for insuring yourself against physical harm. Also if it is inevitable to carry your laptop everywhere, make sure you back up all your data every day and do not keep the backup drive in the bag with the laptop!

Vengeance time

This is the most important part of my post as my conclusion is that there is nothing that can be done to avoid being mugged when probability catches up with you. So the next best thing to do is to get vengeance - help the police catch the person and get your valuables back

• Use your phone! - This ties in with my "be alert" point. Make sure your phone is fully charged at all times. When you are talking to your friend on the way back to your place, keep him/her constantly updated with your position - "Stingerette has now dropped me near Papa Johns. I have reached that school, lots of rats here. Okay, reached the church. Am safely inside my home. Thanks. Good night". Decide a panic code word. Make sure it is short. Something innocuous but uncommon, like "Frodo". As soon as the person hears that, he/she is supposed to treat it as a code red. Immediately drop the phone and call the Georgia Tech police with your last known location
• Mugger's description - You've put the phone down and you are being mugged. Don't panic! Remember, the mugger's main intention is to take money from you and get out of there as quickly as he can. Get a close look at him while you are giving him your belongings. Anything will help - golden teeth, funny belt, orange pants, brown shirt, green shoes. Just something better than "6 foot male". And be careful when you are looking at him. Try not to look at his eyes, and try not to make it obvious that you are committing his description to memory. Also, make it a habit to notice things about people so that when time comes you are somewhat good. By that I mean when walking home next time, try and look at a person for 5 seconds and memorize his physical appearance.
• Car description - This is the harder part, especially for me as I come from India and am not aware of the various car models in US. So like before, try and remember the digits of a car's license plate number as you pass it the next time you are walking back home. Also helpful will be the model and color of the car, and any special features like a major dent on the left side, or left rear view mirror missing. Remember, this is going to be a getaway car and you are most likely not going to get more than a glance at it. The mugger is also going to make sure that you see as little as possible and thus you may be punched to the ground, or worse. So be prepared.
• Use the "Help! I'm being mugged" application. This is what I was actually thinking about when I started writing this post - how to use technology when you are being mugged. Here's a description of what I have in mind

The "Help! I'm being mugged" application. - This is a web/desktop/mobile application with the goal to inform the police that you are being mugged, and providing them with your location. The most important part of the application is code red

• Code red - Code red is function "code_red(location)" called by the application. Code red automatically calls the Georgia Tech police/special emergency number and provides them with my details (name, physical description, photo, etc.) and location. It also updates my Facebook and Twitter with a very strongly worded message saying that you are being mugged and that you were last seen at X location. A similar mail is sent to practically everyone you know who can help - your lab mailing list, your friends, etc. Remember this message must convey with the utmost urgency that you are actually being mugged and that this is no prank. A good thing would be to provide the Georgia Tech police dept number (so that they do not have to look for it - every second counts) and also remind them not to call you. The application should operate in stealth mode. The mugger is most likely going to take your cellphone/laptop away. So if he sees "georgia tech police" on the screen, he is going to get really panicky and angry.

Ok. So that defines what a code red does. But how to know when to call the code red?

• The phone/laptop GPS constantly keeps track of your position. If you are stuck in some place for more than 15 seconds then it automatically goes into the alert mode. If then you still remain in the same place for 15 more seconds without doing anything, or start deviating from your path suddenly, then it goes into code red.
• It is possible that you do not have a GPS on your phone/laptop. In this it needs to know the route that you take and approximately how much time it will take for your journey. The program needs to be manually started with your start location and stopped at your end location. It also needs to know the route that you take and approximately how much time it will take for your journey. You have to stop the program when you reach home. If you don't stop the program at the approximate time, then it goes to alert mode and after a few seconds into code red giving your path to the police.
• A variation of the above is if your phone does not have an active internet connection. In that case you need to call a number to start the program and give your start and end location. When you reach home, call the number again and press the abort key. If you don't call at the appropriate time, then it goes into alert mode and calls your mobile phone. If you do not pick up, or press some emergency key instead of the abort key, then it goes into code red giving your path to the police.

That's all I have for now? What do you think of my post? Do you think there is some prevention/cure measure I have missed? How would you design such an application? Do you think it would work?