Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday August 15 2015, @08:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the rats-got-bored-running-through-mazes dept.

The Buffalo News Police Blotter reports that a pair of thieves stole Xbox wireless controllers and police tracked them down by contacting the manufacturer. Maybe this is standard operating procedure for the cops, but it was new to this submitter. Any idea of the mechanism(s) involved?

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/police-blotter/manufacturer-helps-track-suspected-xbox-devices-thieves-20150813

No explicit mention of Microsoft — perhaps these controllers were made by a third party to work with Xbox.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:56AM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:56AM (#223474)

    As others have pointed out there is something here that just does not sit right.

    We have multiple occasions where US$1000+ laptops, cars equipped with non Lojack GPS trackers and mobile phones that can all be tracked and the location of the item placed to within 5 feet. Easy tags for the police, and in the cases of a stolen car there is likely to be other stolen vehicles at the same location (I remember hearing about a case where a Lojack equipped car was recovered along with 5 other high value cars and they busted a car theft ring to boot)

    And in each of those cases the police do NOTHING. You get the advice to call your insurance company and file a claim. That is it. No follow up. File closed. End of investigation. Period.

    $100s worth of DVDs, video games, mp3 players, booze, etc., get stolen all the time. Often the store doesn't even bother to report it to the police, even if they have video, since the police don't bother to show up unless they have the shop lifter in custody.

    And now there is this case.

    Some X-Box controllers get stolen, retail value ~US$219. The STATE police not only show up at the store but they contact the manufacture to ask for help to determine the controllers internal serial numbers, the ones that the X-Box will identify them by.

    Then they must have also had the co-operation of Microsoft since MS controls the X-BoxLive network. So Microsoft had somebody look through the server logs to find out what X-Box the controllers had been linked to. And after they had that info they checked the X-BoxLive account records to get the home address for that account which they then provided to the police who then secured a warrant (I hope) to search the address.

    That is a Hell of a lot to do over $219 dollars worth of commodity grade electronics.

    I've got a feeling there is way more to this than we are hearing right now. I hope someone follows up on this.

    And this doesn't even begin to address the privacy issues involved. They can track the individual controllers over the Internet? What the Fuck is that all about?

    Makes me very glad I decided to pass on the X-BoxOne. My 360 never gets connected to the internet since I don't have a X-BoxLive account and all my games are stand alone.

    --
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Nollij on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:55PM

    by Nollij (4559) on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:55PM (#223531)

    One of Lojack's big selling points: They know how to work "the system". They know what data to provide the cops, judges, etc. They know WHICH cops, etc to speak with to get results. Presumably, Walmart has the same people on staff.

    There's probably more involved here than was in TFA, but I blame sloppy, local journalists. Just a few possibilities:
    1) This might not have been the only evidence. Lots of cameras at Walmart, the evidence might've just been the nail in the coffin
    2) Perhaps Walmart's been in contact with MS to reduce theft, and were told this was an option
    3) The police could have had a personal stake in this case, motivating them to go the extra mile.
    4) The article might be completely wrong, and they completely screwed the pooch. Wouldn't be the first time it's happened.

    • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday August 16 2015, @07:56PM

      by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Sunday August 16 2015, @07:56PM (#223602)

      All valid points. There is a lot of information about this that we don't have. Hence my hope that someone will follow up and find out why this incident doesn't fit with past situations.

      --
      "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."