Stolen Xbox recovered by victim using controller, science
By Laura June 
posted December 15th 2008 4:26PM
posted December 15th 2008 4:26PM
People will go to great lengths to steal your gear -- no big surprise there. In a nice, semi-ingenious twist, though, one Xbox 360 thief on campus at Missouri State has gotten caught by the dupe himself. Thievery victim Ryan Kestenbaum was able to connect the controller (which the crook had left behind) up to the console, which of course meant that it was nearby. He then went on a fantastic journey with the controller, allowing the LEDs -- which flash if the controller is out of range -- to guide him to the room of the thief. Kestenbaum contacted the dorm's advisor, and the Xbox was recovered, although it had sadly been reformatted and all of Ryan's saved games were gone. He said he plans on prosecuting the thief "to the fullest extent of the law," which we hopes means he'll be getting back the thousands of bottle caps lost.
[Via Daily Tech]
[Via Daily Tech]
That a-hole reformatted!?!? That, my friends, is going too far.
Uhhh, Flashpoint. Who's number is that? I know what Google said. I wanna know if it be okay if I do my best Barry White impression and start talkin' dirty. Will it freak out your mom too much?
Flashpoint i see you live somewhere in the brooklyn/bronx area.
L Shuster (718) 897-7890 6607 99th St, Rego Park, NY 11374
Haha... the wonders Google provides!
I made that number up. Please. Leave L. shuster alone !
Whooops... If you made it up then, I should add a disclaimer then before I get sued up my ass!
*Disclaimer: Genomalice does not promote the unauthorized use of the provided number, address or name for actions unauthorized or implied by the owner. Genomalice, is not liable for any egg-bombings, tissuing or prank-calls that might take place; The information provided above was obtained through the Google Freedom of Search Act (GFSA, from hereon forwards) and thus, the information was not obtained illegally.*
P.S. I really hope the GFSA exists :S
And that's why all the fake telephone numbers on TV start with 555...
@Flashpoint
They can't track a console/laptop by the IP address because as soon as it leaves your possession, its going to take on a new IP address.
The only thing permanent on something that connects to the internet is the MAC which would be impossible to find even if you found it in your router's logs.
There are some laptops that if stolen you can relocate them via GPS and other technologies.
haha i like the ending :D
that sucks that he lost his saves
who cares about save when you have acheivements! unless you're a ps3...
Good for the guy who got it back! But it's a shame he lost the saves. I've had 2 XBOX 360's, 1 PS2, and 2 PS3's stolen during a couple of break-in's. For a true gamer - losing your saves really IS the worst part. It's a lot of time lost -- and going back to certain saves in your favorite games is the most awesome deja-vu you can have. It actually made me sad that I lost those saves. And using an Action Replay or similar device just isn't the same -- they're not YOUR saves. I hope he does prosecute.
That's right up there with your PS2 memory card taking a crap on you. I had made it to the the end of the third disc of FFVIII and had spent an extra thirty or fourty hours grinding my characters. GOOOOOOONNNNNNNEEEEE!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I still haven't restarted the game...
I think most gamers have had an experience akin to that. We feel your pain my friend. Sooner or later we will have gamer judges on the bench and they will accept this as valid mental aguish.
Man, I cried when my PS1 memory card crapped out and I lost my Castlevania: Symphony of the Night save :'(
@reisa
You would think after the first or second stolen console you would upgrade your door locks and add a security system + contacts on your windows? Losing 5 Consoles = A bunch of money wasted.. that coulda helped you through this recession
He's just doing his part to support retailers during these harsh times. In fact, leave your doors unlocked, America needs you!
reisa:
Why the hell did you have all those consoles in the first place? Heating system? One for each room? You are a silly person.
Data is never really lost... bring it to a forensic HDD specialist. They may be abel to recover everything. MMMMK. There is one located in Cambridge MA.. they are very good.
Helix. http://www.e-fense.com/helix/
It's a lot less expensive (free). Or you could add the cost of the recovery to the damage judgement.
Also according to Information Conservation, it cannot be destroyed.
So if its not left as a trace on your hdd, its floating around the universe somewhere.
@Kali4: How is he supposed to use Helix to recover the data from a 360's hdd? Unless he opens up the drive and hooks it up to a pc?
uh, hard drives are generally wiped completely in the process of formatting.
Actually, its just the File Allocation Table thats generally destroyed in a format (of any kind). The files exist still on the hard drive until you fill it up with new data. Same happens when you delete a file on a computer - the file's data still exists, just the drive's reference to it is deleted. The data will exist for the most part until too much new data has been put on the drive and/or becomes fragmented.
I heard about this on the radio this morning. Pretty ingenious way of narrowing down the location of a 360 since most of all the dorms on MSU are old brick buildings, not sure how far the signal would go. Although I don't know how well the finding would hold up in court though as the controller could have been bonded with the 360 previously and never used with any other machine. In that cause the controller would act like it belonged to the prior console regardless of ownership of the controller or the 360 console. If the owner had the serial number written down and just needed to find the SOB that stole it, then this works perfectly.
I think being able to turn on the xbox in a room would give enough evidence to get the dorm opened. From there, the "proof" of original ownership can be established through any number of methods - name the console was registered to (via LIVE account) or even easier, a trip down to the school's IT department to see which port that XBOX had been connecting to for months on end. If the "alleged" thief couldn't explain why HIS xbox had been connecting since the start of school to someone else's network connection, it should straightforward enough.
All that is assuming the guy who stole it and got caught was to try and fight this, rather than just plea bargaining the criminal charges (xbox is enough to be Grand Theft) and hoping to settle on civil matters.
As punishment, I think the thief should have to put as many hours into community service as the guy put into the Xbox.
What a jerk.
lol, that would work really well if WoW was available for the 360. the thief would be doing community service almost 20 hours a day.
oops....I before E, except for me!
haha, i love laura junes articles
In da words of Ali G, respetc.
Errr.... "Restecp" ?
Tomato, tomato?
Hey guys, there is this jewelry shop near my house. They stole my diamond ring, I have the box, can you help me break in and get my diamonds back?
Oh, sure. We'd love to help. Just meet us at the corner of ST & FU.
Call OJ - he knows people who can help you.
Is that Val Kilmer????
Moral of the story… lock your doors. Or… Just because someone is in college, doesn't make them any less likely to be a d-bag.
Police probably won’t do much, but it can be argued that the value of the Xbox and data stored was worth more than $500. Thereby making it a candidate for a class C felony charge in the state.
did you used to work at ridgways in princeton?
I don't think wireless controllers are tethered to specific consoles. If I'm wrong let me know.
But that kid may have just stolen someone else's 360.
Unless you've removed the batteries or resynched your 360 to another controller, I believe the information still stays valid on the controller.
you have to press the sync button on both the controller and the console and let them sync up to each other before they can talk. Then they are permanently tethered, even through a battery change.
I'm not sure how unique the tether is, but I'm guessing its extremely unlikely that you'd find another xbox that talks to the same controller in the same general area. However if I were law enforcement I'd definitely make sure before issuing any punishment or taking the xbox back.
Then again, if you register your hardware's SN with the manufacturer, there's really no debate. Unless, of course, he sold the 360 to someone while he was drunk and forgot about it.
@Aaron
My thought exactly... I imagine it will be important that he be able to produce the original packaging or proof of ownership (serial number, etc). At the same time, the biggest step is saying "Hey, think this bitch took my Xbox, stop him from selling it plskthx."
The sync was what provided enough evidence to COLLECT the xbox. It won't be the only info used to persecute. Campus MAC registration, LIVE account (which has console MAC and serial ID), fingerprints, or hell, even just the douchebag's roommate coming forward and saying "yeah, he just walked in one night drunk with an xbox and no controllers".
It's enough to set up a suspect. Not enough to convict on controller connection alone.
Actually, you can even remove the batteries and the controller will still be synced with the console. You have to "link" the two together by pressing the learn buttons so the RF can link the two. So yes, you cannot just link to any console around without previously linking the two together.
Man, how that student got into college should be part of the story, obviously knows nothing about the 360 so he thought he was safe. What an idiot!
Off Point: Real Genius FTW! One of my favorite movies from the 80's
I concur. Real Genius is one of the best movies ever. I have it on videotape... and I have nothing to play it on, thats how good it is.
I go to school there! This happened to a guy I knew at the end of last semester, so unfortunately the bastard got away with everybody moving out. Happened in the same building too.
Thief punished using boot, physics.
Lucky he lived close to him.
sry homie... i didnt think you wer gonna play 2 players =\
all the more reason to back up those saves people.