Cancer patient has Xbox 360 stolen whilst in hospital

There's inhumane, and then there's despicable, but unfortunately for a 17-year old cancer patient receiving treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital, he knows all too well about both of them. A Vermont-based teenager had been suffered from osteosarcoma, bone cancer in the leg, and was "recovering from surgery" a few hundred miles away from home. Apparently, someone(s) the family actually knew broke into their home while they were obviously away, and proceeded to jack his Xbox 360 as well as "over $1,000 worth of games and DVDs" while they were at it. Local police suggest that they "do have some good leads involving current and former students at local high schools," and while none of the culprits have been apprehended just yet, folks have been more than generous in helping Jeff return to some state of normalcy by donating funds to help with family expenses, and one individual actually dropped off a new Xbox 360 console for a local radio station to deliver.

[Via Xbox360Fanboy]

[surge @ Jan 28th 2007 4:57AM]

u forgot to mention that the thiefs left a perfectly brand new PS3 untouched...sony owned...360 rulez

[Deluxe @ Jan 28th 2007 5:44AM]

Ugh, soon the fanboy serum will be readily available and clods like you will be put out of our misery.

[Weeeeb @ Jan 28th 2007 5:18AM]

^^ haha that's eff'in stupendous. I freaking hate sony almost as much as I hate those low life's that would steal from someone in such a dire situation. Hell, even if he didnt have cancer. BS, get a job you wankers.

[Legodude522 @ Jan 28th 2007 5:29AM]

Kudos to the person who donated the new Xbox 360.

[Dave @ Jan 28th 2007 5:31AM]

those asses! Some1 should make them suffer by deleting all their porn frm their computer while they watch!

Surge fyi there's nothing about a ps3 in the story. but i guess the ps3 deserves that, since BB and FS just jacked up their prices.

*Sad*

[Andir3.0 @ Jan 28th 2007 5:52AM]

I think I've figured out the "Internet Metality"!!

People stealing PS3s = Sony bad!!

People stealing 360 from cancer patient = 360 rulez!!

[tchiseen @ Jan 28th 2007 5:58AM]

lol

starting to get tired of ppl playing the cancer card

i dont own a 360, prolly wont. i work hard and cant afford it. lots of people get kicked while they're down, not all of them are rich enough to buy 360's or fortuneate enough to get in the news (and get given free 360's from other people)

just a question, what is going to happen if the police find the crim and recover his stolen property(which in this case sounds likely)? cancer kid gets 2 360's? god bless america.

[Daniel Fisk @ Jan 28th 2007 9:32AM]

Well, don't take this the wrong way here, but bone cancer really is one hell of a nightmare. I'd say if the kid had to go through it at 17 and lives and the police find his original 360 the last thing anyone should be worried about is, "what's he going to do with two now?". I've seen cancer patients, I know what it does to their bodies and the almost unimaginable pain that it can entail. It's not like he had chicken pox, now is it? Perhaps people should try showing some level of decency and compassion on the internet instead of just using it as an unassailable platform from which to assault people who will likely never even have the opportunity to defend themselves. So to that, I truly say, "may God have mercy on America".

Tcheuss,
~Dan

[Andy @ Jan 28th 2007 4:29PM]

So you'd rather have cancer AND be able to afford a Xbox 360?

Get a grip on what's important.

[snafle @ Jan 28th 2007 6:19AM]

tchiseen: I really don't think the kid put himself in the news to get a new 360. Probably when he gets his own 360 back he'll says "Thank very much, but I'm sorry I can't keep this", sell all the other stuff and donate the money to a cancer charity.

[Jonesy @ Jan 28th 2007 6:50AM]

For crying out loud, the comment section on Joystiq is bad enough for fanboys turning every post into a stupid 'my stuffs better than yours' competition, looks like it's spilling over onto Engadget. Where next? StyleDash? Comment on the bloody story and leave your fanboy squabbles elsewhere.

Poor kid, the last thing you want when your ill and in hospital is some arsehole breaking in and swiping your stuff.

@ tchiseen, you don't know where the original 360 came from, he could have saved up, it could have been donated (for him having cancer)family/friends presents ect. Think it's a bit harsh to say 'playing the cancer card' as I hope you never find yourself with it yourself. A

s far as the 360 being returned and having two I would imagine he would have the decency to donate it to someone is a similar postion.

[thom @ Jan 28th 2007 6:55AM]

looks like microsot should have given a new xbox and get some nearly free advertisement.
Well they seem to get free advertisement anyway and have save the price of a xbox.

[norahh @ Jan 28th 2007 9:03AM]

you guys suck.

for the people saying "0mgx0rz, at least they didn't take the ps3!" yeah. shut the fuck up. the kid has cancer.

for those of you saying "he'll totally have the decency to donate it because obviously when you have cancer, you become selfless and generous" um, not everybody with cancer is a poor helpless little kid that never did anything to anybody. he's sick. he's not a fucking saint. yeah it's sad, but stop pretending you're his best friend. he may very well not have the decency to donate it.

and that bitch that said "playing the cancer card" needs to die. I'd be pissed if I did not have cancer and my shit got stolen, especially something that exspenive. it's just more fucked up because he's ill. if you think it's the same thing, then you probably think pickpocketing and graverobbing require the same standards of morality.

basically, you all need to stop thinking that everyone and everything around you is ignorant, and you're the only one who could possibly "know"

I don't know. I'm not saying I know. At least I know I'm not you.

[HuZ @ Jan 28th 2007 10:22AM]

..Dave you're right..just delete their porn ^^

thumbs up for guy who sent new 360
--->www.be-immortal.com

[Renee @ Jan 28th 2007 10:34AM]

First and foremost, the lowlifes that committed this crime need to be found (or better yet, turn themselves in - yeah, I know that the chances of that are slim to none).

Second, the bigger problem of people taking advantage of others when they are ill or hurt needs to be addressed. These "people" that committed this KNEW the situation, and committed this crime knowing this. Those are people with absolutely no conscience. Their lives are centered around them, and damn anyone who they victimize.

Is this becoming a societal norm? I sure hope not. I know my kids were not brought up this way. In fact, they saw first-hand how some people behave this way. How? We were victimized by someone my daughter and her boyfriend knew. Over the course of a few days, while I was taking my husband back and forth to the hospital for complications of his renal failure, this person took my digital camera (with some of the last pictures of my husband on the memory card), our camcorder, and almost all of our DVD's. What did he do with them? He sold them to his drug dealer for meth, and for stuff he "wanted". Nice.

I did manage to get back one DVD set, a favorite of my husband's. But everything else was gone. I would have done just about anything to get back the memory card. My husband ended up dying several months later.

I sure hope that the police find these people that took that kid and his family's possessions. What did the police do in our case? Nothing. The person who did this is free and walking around to this day, 3 years later. No charges were ever filed, even though he admitted what he did. Our sense of security was the biggest thing stolen by this person.

I hope that the community continues to rally around this kid and his family. Again, I hope they turn in the people who did this. Someone knows who it was. They never keep this to themselves. Honestly, the loss of the 360 and DVD's isn't the worst part. The worst part for them is that someone would do this while they were gone helping their son.

For those of you who are immature enough to use this as a sounding board to try and legitimize what these holligans did or think it is cool they left a PS3 and took the 360, shame on you! It isn't cool. It isn't neat. It is just wrong. Grow up.

[retro @ Jan 28th 2007 10:52AM]

This is really depressing. The most depressing is that somebody would steal something from somebody in the hospital for cancer, the lesser (while still depressing) is how idiots in this comment section try to convert it into a stupid fanboy statement. Grow up you fucking tools.

[last49 @ Jan 28th 2007 11:37AM]

It's too bad that he has bone cancer, but the kid's obviously well off if he has $1000 worth of DVDs in addition to a PS3 and a 360. Why not spend the money on cancer treatment for kids who aren't rich?

[Jypson @ Jan 28th 2007 2:14PM]

It only takes like 10 games and 30 DVD's to make a thousand bucks. Also there is NO ps3 mentioned anywhere in the article. I reccomend reading a post and thinking before typing...but again this is the internet, no intelligence required to voice and defend an opinion.

[Sabeer Kibria @ Jan 28th 2007 11:46AM]

Dudes there is no PS3 there. Grow up, and stop making stuff up. Yeah, this is pretty sad stuff. Whoever did this deserves some jail time at the least.

[parker @ Jan 28th 2007 12:15PM]

thats just sad

[Rick @ Jan 28th 2007 12:35PM]

sorry to read this story, but sorrier still to see some of these comments. All I can say is wow. Engadget can't you get some kind of filter that bans certain IP adresses? Sort of a low-life filter?

[tiuk @ Jan 28th 2007 1:50PM]

The world is a terrible, terrible place.

[rotelle3 @ Jan 28th 2007 2:09PM]

The treatment for osteosarcoma is often amputation; it often develops in the legs. Think just a little bit before you post, OK?

[CaptCaveman @ Jan 28th 2007 2:50PM]

Sorry to hear about any type of break-in that happens when a family is going through something like this. Odds are that the person / people responsible for this knew what the family was going through and took advantage of the situation. Something like that is simply in-humane although I'm sure that the thief / thieves think that it was clever.

Also it's good when others try to return a person or a family back to as close as normal as they can get after something like this. Instead of having a "damn, that's f'ed up, glad something like that didn't happen to me..." attitude.

It's a shame that when something like this is happening to a family (or person) they have to be on their guard the most. Since this is when the lowest of the low come out to try to take advantage.

[xoUNLABELEDxo @ Jan 28th 2007 3:06PM]

geez, that's pretty bad. but major kudo's to the donator of the new 360... very nice.

[Louis S. @ Jan 28th 2007 3:43PM]

I dunno what's sadder.

The kid with cancer who gets his stuff stolen, or the fucking retards in this thread that try to be all high and mighty against some kid with cancer.

Seriously, go fall in a pit and die.

[myscrnnm @ Jan 28th 2007 3:44PM]

Whoever did this is just plain sick.

[2Perfect @ Jan 28th 2007 4:34PM]

Wow that's just sad. Seriously.

First of all you would steal.. secondly, from someone you know. Thirdly, from someone who's being treated for cancer. Fourthly, you're stealing a game... not like food or some necessity.

That's just sad. 360s aren't even that expensive. If you don't have enough that money you probably wont have money to pay for electricity when you play your 360.... what's the world coming to.

[Carson @ Jan 28th 2007 6:04PM]

I agree, the world can be a terrible terrible place. When my mom and dad spent two weeks in the hospital dealing with my dad's lung cancer, someone broke into our house and stole money and jewelry. None of the jewelry items stolen were worth more than a couple hundred dollars apiece but the fact that they were given to my mom by my grandmother is what upset her the most. Like this situation, I believe it was someone who knew that they were out of town and for what reason--making the situation all the more disturbing.

[Shibathedog @ Jan 28th 2007 7:36PM]

wow that was really nice of someone to donate a new 360. It goes to show you for all the douche bags in this world there are still some really nice people.

[Diceburna @ Jan 28th 2007 8:27PM]

U know alot of ppl walk around today w/o the basic understanding of humanity, totally clueless on how to progress, living in a total fantasy, always evading the realities of life. Fact is....when the kid wins the battle against cancer he will be alot stronger than his peers that kicked him when he was down, he's young and has support so he will have what it takes to win....now for his peers that stole from him, hmm unless they open their eyes, they will continue to steal, live a life of self destruction, become fiends (prolly get caught up w/ da white, kush, slow death, lol robitussin, etc), get used up to make the next man happy and quickly discarded. Happens alot!!!

[Steve @ Jan 28th 2007 9:29PM]

"There's inhumane, and then there's despicable, but unfortunately for a 17-year old cancer patient receiving treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital, he knows all too well about both of them."

Nice english, it should say, "and unfortunately"

Among the other mistakes that anyone with a high-school english education should not be making:

"A Vermont-based teenager had been suffered"

Oh, had he

"Apparently, someone(s) the family actually knew"

I didn't know someone had a plural form

I mean, I realize you're just going to steal your content from other sites, but why don't you try cleaning up their idiotic mistakes?

I won't comment on the story itself, other than to say that I'm pretty generally disgusted with the dregs of humanity these days.

[JohnathonB @ Jan 28th 2007 9:54PM]

I live in the same town as this kid, and not only did one person drop off a 360, about thirty did! I'm not sure what they're going to do with them all, hopefully they will sell them as a fund raiser for him. Thats pretty sad that someone he knew broke in knowing how sick he is, but the donations by so many people shows that there are at least some good people left!

[MaryLu @ Jan 29th 2007 5:08AM]

"I live in the same town as this kid, and not only did one person drop off a 360, about thirty did!"

Wow. Might be a good idea to raffle off some of them, but why not take a few down to MGH and put them into the Ped's Wards where the kids who really need them can play with them.

However the community at large needs to take their kids out back and knock some sense in their heads for such behavior.

[Andy @ Jan 29th 2007 9:24AM]

i find myself asking this at least once a day anymore, but what they hell is wrong with people!?!