Stolen Xbox recovered by victim using controller, science

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]

[BJ is Gooder @ Dec 15th 2008 4:31PM]

That a-hole reformatted!?!? That, my friends, is going too far.

[Kali4 @ Dec 15th 2008 4:53PM]

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?

[B3astofthe3ast @ Dec 15th 2008 5:05PM]

Flashpoint i see you live somewhere in the brooklyn/bronx area.

[GenoMalice @ Dec 15th 2008 5:15PM]

L Shuster [phone] 6607 99th St, Rego Park, NY 11374

Haha... the wonders Google provides!

[Flashpoint @ Dec 15th 2008 8:38PM]

I made that number up. Please. Leave L. shuster alone !

[GenoMalice @ Dec 15th 2008 9:30PM]

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

[ThreeDee912 @ Dec 15th 2008 11:51PM]

And that's why all the fake telephone numbers on TV start with 555...

[Rob @ Dec 16th 2008 9:50AM]

@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.

[dav @ Dec 15th 2008 4:32PM]

haha i like the ending :D

that sucks that he lost his saves

[Chase @ Dec 15th 2008 4:35PM]

who cares about save when you have acheivements! unless you're a ps3...

[reisa @ Dec 15th 2008 4:41PM]

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.

[Kali4 @ Dec 15th 2008 4:48PM]

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.

[Fernando @ Dec 15th 2008 5:20PM]

Man, I cried when my PS1 memory card crapped out and I lost my Castlevania: Symphony of the Night save :'(

[GenoMalice @ Dec 15th 2008 5:32PM]

@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

[Daza @ Dec 16th 2008 8:11AM]

He's just doing his part to support retailers during these harsh times. In fact, leave your doors unlocked, America needs you!

[ben @ Dec 16th 2008 4:45PM]

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.

[kal326 @ Dec 15th 2008 4:34PM]

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.

[Brad @ Dec 15th 2008 5:36PM]

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.

[SPOKE @ Dec 15th 2008 4:38PM]

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.

[Kali4 @ Dec 15th 2008 4:41PM]

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.

[Oli D @ Dec 15th 2008 4:44PM]

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.

[Drew Green @ Dec 15th 2008 6:42PM]

@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?

[maveric101 @ Dec 16th 2008 4:05AM]

uh, hard drives are generally wiped completely in the process of formatting.

[maty @ Dec 16th 2008 6:48AM]

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.

[Mike10010100 @ Dec 15th 2008 4:38PM]

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.

[chansthename @ Dec 15th 2008 5:37PM]

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.

[Chase @ Dec 15th 2008 4:38PM]

oops....I before E, except for me!

[Chaos Theory @ Dec 15th 2008 4:39PM]

haha, i love laura junes articles

[Samboini @ Dec 15th 2008 4:41PM]

In da words of Ali G, respetc.

[AgonS @ Dec 15th 2008 4:45PM]

Errr.... "Restecp" ?

[Samboini @ Dec 15th 2008 4:51PM]

Tomato, tomato?

[Saad Rabia @ Dec 15th 2008 4:42PM]

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?

[R4mp4nt @ Dec 15th 2008 6:44PM]

Oh, sure. We'd love to help. Just meet us at the corner of ST & FU.

[AL @ Dec 16th 2008 4:08AM]

Call OJ - he knows people who can help you.

[StinkyPete @ Dec 15th 2008 4:44PM]

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.

[StalematE @ Dec 15th 2008 4:47PM]

did you used to work at ridgways in princeton?

[facebookfake @ Dec 15th 2008 4:47PM]

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.

[Dee @ Dec 15th 2008 4:49PM]

Unless you've removed the batteries or resynched your 360 to another controller, I believe the information still stays valid on the controller.

[Aaron Blair @ Dec 15th 2008 4:58PM]

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.

[matt merritt @ Dec 15th 2008 5:23PM]

@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."

[Brad @ Dec 15th 2008 5:40PM]

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.

[mike @ Dec 17th 2008 8:56AM]

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.

[Dee @ Dec 15th 2008 4:47PM]

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

[Adam @ Dec 15th 2008 6:20PM]

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.

[Kris120890 @ Dec 15th 2008 4:49PM]

Lucky he lived close to him.

[Anthony @ Dec 15th 2008 4:51PM]

sry homie... i didnt think you wer gonna play 2 players =\

[CosterMonger @ Dec 15th 2008 4:56PM]

Ben Heck needs to show us the way to mod our consoles for easy tracking: GPS, internet, or both

[Justin @ Dec 15th 2008 4:58PM]

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.

[rahat @ Dec 15th 2008 5:01PM]

epic picture win

[spam_free @ Dec 15th 2008 5:06PM]

Moral of the story is: If you must steal, take the whole kit. Not just the console. Heck, take the power cord too. And the game DVDs. And that LCD TV. O don't forget that jar of change on the counter. What the hell, just lock the guy out and move right in.

But a better moral might be: Do not steal.