Wits, tech, and a bit of luck locate stolen Xbox

Hey kids. You know how your parents tell you you're never going to learn anything if you keep playing video games? Well, they're wrong.

You can at least learn how to find your game system if it's ever stolen...by someone stupid enough to keep it relatively close to you. Also, it has to be an Xbox 360. Yeah, so as long as you meet those criteria, then you can learn something. Otherwise, no. Nothing to learn, at all.

That little controller saves lives. Well maybe not lives per se, but at least money, which can equal lives. Yeah, that's it.

(Credit: Microsoft)

According to The Standard Online, Missouri State University student Ryan Ketsenburg had his Xbox 360 stolen after he and his roommate neglected to lock the door to their dorm room.

Once he saw that the thieves had failed to also steal the 360's wireless controller, he also realized that the controller was still in contact with the Xbox. After that, through the process of elimination, he was able to find the console.

A controller that's registered to an Xbox 360 has a range of about 30 feet. If the controller is further than that from the system, the LEDs will begin to flash. Knowing this, Ketsenburg determined that his system was on the fifth floor of his dorm. He got the fifth floor attendant to open the door of the room he'd narrowed it down to, found his system, and was able to prove it was his by using the controller to turn the system on. The Xbox was then given back to him.

There are obviously two morals here. The first, know your tech. If you're just playing games without understanding how the technology behind your systems is working, then start doing that. Current-generation consoles have really cool technology running them, both on the software and hardware fronts.

The second moral obviously: if you're going to steal an Xbox, make sure you steal the controller as well.

[FirebirdVII1963]

I guess you could also learn to lock your dorm room while you're not there.

[shootdraxxus]

Or get a better roommate...

[Lerianis]

Hey, people forget things sometimes. I once forgot to lock the door to my house when I was going out in a rush, and anyone could have come in the three days that I was gone.
I was just lucky that I have 'nosy neighbors' and no one could legitimately do that.

[abundantsnotbob]

Or they could have said later, "Hey you stole my controller." To the person they stole the Xbox from.

[Lerianis]

Actually, no, they couldn't. If he had the controller in his room and THEN went to the people to say "My XBox was stolen!".... I'm more likely to believe the guy who came to the office with the controller in hand.

[iff2mastamatt]

Steal PS3's instead.

[kylebuttermore]

couldn't you do this with a ps3 as well...

[racegordon24]

Why couldn't this be done with a Playstation 3 or Wii? I'm pretty sure it doesn't HAVE to be a 360, as per the article. My PS3's controllers are wireless (via bluetooth), and only work with the system with which they were originally registered with. Same with a Wii's controllers...they only work with the system they were registered with.

[Wild Eep]

Wiimotes are actually "public". You can connect them to any Wii you want at any time, but you need to have access to buttons on both the console and the controller

[racegordon24]

Right, but if you've never synced the Wiimote with a Wii system, it won't power it on. That's what I mean. In other words, the Wiimote must have been synced to the system, proving it was the system to which the remote belonged.

[Shaymojack]

Wild Eep, I'm pretty sure that's just how the 360 and PS3 work too.

[cnetdude1977]

Does the PS3 or Wii remote have a indicator on the controller to tell you if it is out of range or connected? That would be pretty useless to be walking around trying to connect the remote to the systen if it had no indication on the remote like the 360 has the led indicators. Only thing is you could listen to see if you could hear the ps3 or wii turn on, but you would also need the tv on, and it to be on the correct a/v and loud enough to hear through the door.

[zgreenwell]

It would work with the Wii for sure. Its lights do indicate if it is connected or not. I am not sure about the PS3 controllers.

[dctech08]

cool....

[sting7k]

All I can really say is lol.

[roachbrain]

Chop off his hands, then ask him if he still feels like playing with the 360 is what i would have done.

[markb1967]

hope the thief got kicked out of school and a good old fashioned beat down.

[Icar0]

I have a question,

So you are telling me, that they stole a Xbox360 without turning it off, and let the controler in the room still conected to the unpluged Xbox360 and the guy used the special LED feaure that shows that the control is near the console.

Is that even posible? Im serious does the Xbox360 can be found when unpluged? Cant the controlers "get" on others Xbox360 when pressed the main X button?

I dont think it is even factible to say Oh dude! Lets turn on our new stolen Xbox360 so we can play with ehm.... our no controler! Oh I know, lets just let it pluged for the sake of Halo3, Lol.

How real can this be??

[CSMatt]

This is completely legit.

- The system can be moved and the controller will still connect.
- Your controller will turn on and connect to whatever XBOX 360 it was last connected to. If you want it to connect to another a separate button needs pressed.
- most likely the person had more than one controller and the controller that was used was under a pile of clothes on the floor.

[Benf]

You seriously need to learn something about technology dude

[dude7895]

Your an idiot.

[D3vildog699]

Did you type Factible??

[sobishop]

Personally after I had found out who took it and verified it was mine, I would have left a note on it saying "I will be in classes all day, when I get back to my room I expect this to be sitting in the exact spot where you stole it from. Otherwise I am gonna have 4 or 5 guys, who enjoy beating the $&%@ out of people just for the sheer pleasure of it, come in here and get it from you." Then he will be my ***** for the rest of his dorm occupying days.

[illegallydead]

haha I would have liked to have seen the conversation with the RA there with the kid trying to explain that the controller will only turn on that 360, thus proving it is his. In my experience with dorm bureaucracy it would have taken more than that.

And yes, an old fashioned beat down is in order for the stupid crooks.

[robvme]

I would actually like to Microsoft install a securtiy lock out feature that can be turned on as an option at registration that would shut the console down upon connecting to Live for those that are reported as stolen. Much like the security codes in car stereos. Yes, technically inclined people would probably find a way around it, but most thiefs are not that smart.

[ace53698]

That's what you get for attending a ghetto school like Missouri state.

[coheeed2113]

LOL best comment ever.

[Pard68]

Would have let the guy get home first and start using it. Than I would have busted out my controller and messed with it outside of his door. Got myself the chat pad, I would bust open a message text box and just typed a message to him. When he runs out screaming talking about ghosts I would just slip in and take it back.

[jsnowbordr47]

I love how some people have managed actually turn this into another system wars thread. lol It looks like all the PS3 and Wii fanboys are ticked that this happened to happen to a dude with a 360 rather than a dude with one of their systems.

[the_iceman]

this only is effective if the 360 was plugged in right? Possession is 9/10 of law unless he had proof like a receipt, otherwise couldnt the thief claim this guy stole his controller?

[Hellcat]

Also if they registered the 360 it probably has the serial number on the registration form. Not sure if you can look it up online but you can probably call Microsoft and get proof its yours.

[madmofo]

If the thieves were dumb the easy proof would be a gamer tag on the x-box registered to the guy that owns the controller, but yeah, as pointed out there very well may be a way that microsoft can trace a console to whoever registered it. The main problem is that I routinely connect my controllers to my friends x-box, so going on controller connection alone fails in the long run since you could go to a guys apartment, sync a controller to their console, then claim it's yours since your controller will turn it on. You'd need some other way of corroborating the actual owner.

[sportsbud1]

Hey smart guys the wii works with infered thus line of sight is needed to the sensing bar unless you are gping to stick the controller under doors its impossible or the infered beam does some elaborate reflecting off some walls it cannot go thogh walls lif rf like the ps3 and 360 use they use rf signals

[sportsbud1]

whoops sorry shot myself in the foot there the wii does not use infered for the bulk of transmissions but uses rf like the others soo it would work.

[sideswiper66]

this means the thief also had yet to connect another controller...had the thief used the system at all and synced the system to a controller of his own or someone else's...the controller of the victim would be rendered useless.