Stolen Items

[chaosrl]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, if it isn't, mods please move this appropriately.

One of my friends here in Houston just had their house robbed. His house has some nice stuff, and the things stolen include a Wii, an XBox 360, a couple of external HDD, and a Macbook Air.

Does anyone have any ideas on tracking these things? I know the best bet seems to be the XBox, but how would we go about attempting to track it? Any input would be great. Thanks!

[|Mitch|]

I'd check the local pawn shops and hope you get lucky.

[Polygon]

check the pawn shops around town, file a police report, and remember when you are replacing all those things to copy down serial numbers and and such, which can make all the difference if you are looking through pawn shops and whatnot.

and maybe invest in some K-lock cables to secure the more sensitive stuff.

[Kareeser]

Hm... this post made me do a look-around in my room... there's actually a LOT of stealabout stuff here... 22 inch monitor, laptop, external hard drives... :(

[Godly]

Check craig's list for Houston for new postings of these things. If your friend has serial numbers he can cross reference the items for sale. You'll have to be sneaky and probably meet the people posting on craig's list to verify the s/n. I doubt they just give it up over the phone, and if they do then they're probably not the theifs. Good luck.

[gnomeuser]

Hm... this post made me do a look-around in my room... there's actually a LOT of stealabout stuff here... 22 inch monitor, laptop, external hard drives... :(

Not a problem 5 or 6 strategically placed Dobermanns in the garden can't allivate.

[argie]

No phone? You can find a phone using its IMEI. Tell the police, and they can help you with getting networks to then track who uses that IMEI to connect. Of course, if the thief threw away the phone, this is useless.

My mother's phone was stolen (here in India) and the IMEI was part of what led the police to the criminals. Your phone's IMEI should be on the box that it came in (or in the bill).

[billgoldberg]

I wouldn't put my hopes up on retrieving it.

Insurance should cover the damages.

A bit strange they went for the harddrives, these things are hardly worth anything.

[calvinps]

I wouldn't put my hopes up on retrieving it.

Insurance should cover the damages.

A bit strange they went for the harddrives, these things are hardly worth anything.

Bill, you must be kidding.

Surely those hard drives could contain loads of work and personal information?

:S

[0per4t0r]

:S
how do you make that smilie in real life?


Anyway, that sucks that that stuff got stolen. Anyway, what city do you live in, chaosrl?

[billgoldberg]

Bill, you must be kidding.

Surely those hard drives could contain loads of work and personal information?

:S

I ment for the thieves.

What can they get for that, 10-20 bucks?

[ssam]

there is http://www.immobilise.com/ in the UK. they have a database of serial numbers, so that id anything gets picked up by the police it can be traced back to you.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

I'd check the local pawn shops and hope you get lucky.

Check craig's list for Houston for new postings of these things.
If the person is smart he'll wait a few months before trying to sell the stolen goods. Although since all of stolen goods were electronic the longer he waits to sell them the less he'll get. Since processing power is constantly going up while price is constantly coming down.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, if it isn't, mods please move this appropriately.

One of my friends here in Houston just had their house robbed. His house has some nice stuff, and the things stolen include a Wii, an XBox 360, a couple of external HDD, and a Macbook Air.

Does anyone have any ideas on tracking these things? I know the best bet seems to be the XBox, but how would we go about attempting to track it? Any input would be great. Thanks!

Each device you listed would have a MAC address. However, when you start to associate the MAC address to the IP address from where the device is used, and making that available to law enforcement without a warrant (e.g. probable cause), then I would suspect that there are privacy laws, illegal search laws, illegal wiretap laws, etc., that would interfere with it. I don't think law enforcement would go through the trouble of getting a warrant for each ISP to provide this kid of information for a few hundred dollars of stolen merchandise.

Sadly, your friend may want to look at the friends of their immediate family or their own extended family members.

When my house was robbed, the first time it was my brother-in-law, and the second it was a nephew of my wife. The nephew actually took pictures of himself, and his accomplices, with what they thought was a toy camera. No, it was a real camera. :)

[Warpnow]

I ment for the thieves.

What can they get for that, 10-20 bucks?

Thousands and thousands if one of those hard drives had enough personal information to fuel identify theft.

[gletob]

All I know is someone better not break in to my house or they'll get a .22 bullet in between the eyes. And I'd make them take the body out the back door, Why? I don't wont to get blood on my hall carpet.

[MaxIBoy]

I think home insurance will usually cover this kind of thing.

In the future, try case modding everything to look broken, or putting everything valuable in a room without a window so no one will see it. Also, I know electricity is expensive these days, but if you leave your lights on, and maybe a radio, burglars will think someone's at home and won't break in.

[mips]

[quote=chaosrl;7123403 His house has some nice stuff,...![/quote]

First time I hear of property owning property, you learn new stuff every day ;)

[chaosrl]

Anyway, what city do you live in, chaosrl?

Houston, Texas. We've been checking the local pawn shops, so far nothing. As far as I know, doesn't have the serial numbers to his items. We'll definitely keep our eyes out on Craigslist and the pawn shops. Thanks for all your input! I'll keep this posted with anything we find out.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I don't think there was anything compromising on the hard drives, though a lot of it was pictures and videos that he took over the past quite-a-few years.

[Scott Deagan]

You could try: http://www.searchforstolen.com - it seems to be a "global" service. You have to sign-up and then register your valuables. You're supposed to register your valuables BEFORE they are stolen, but I've used it "after the fact". In my case, I was very luck - someone boke into my home and stole my computer and tried to sell it at a pawn brokers. The pawn broker ran a search on searchforstolen.com and was notified that the computer had been reported stolen. The pawn broker called the police and they caught the person!

[xpod]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, if it isn't, mods please move this appropriately.

One of my friends here in Houston just had their house robbed. His house has some nice stuff, and the things stolen include a Wii, an XBox 360, a couple of external HDD, and a Macbook Air.

Does anyone have any ideas on tracking these things? I know the best bet seems to be the XBox, but how would we go about attempting to track it? Any input would be great. Thanks!

I hate this type of scumbag, with a passion.
Only recently my mothers house up in Scotland was broken into and she`s still living in fear because of it, even though the scum in question is back in prison at this moment in time.
Also, many years ago when myself and my wife still had our own places back in Scotland a local parasite robbed her house too.That in itself was bad enough but it turned out this particular pond life was also a convicted child molester.We had our son by this time but thankfully both him and his mother were at my place that night.
That piece of shite is no longer alive i`m glad to say as he died a couple of years later.


All I know is someone better not break in to my house or they'll get a .22 bullet in between the eyes. And I'd make them take the body out the back door, Why? I don't wont to get blood on my hall carpet.

We`re not allowed the guns to shoot them over here....it has to be more of a "hands on" approach and even then your just as likely to end up in prison yourself.

[t0p]

I hate this type of scumbag, with a passion.
Only recently my mothers house up in Scotland was broken into and she`s still living in fear because of it, even though the scum in question is back in prison at this moment in time.
Also, many years ago when myself and my wife still had our own places back in Scotland a local parasite robbed her house too.That in itself was bad enough but it turned out this particular pond life was also a convicted child molester.We had our son by this time but thankfully both him and his mother were at my place that night.
That piece of shite is no longer alive i`m glad to say as he died a couple of years later.



We`re not allowed the guns to shoot them over here....it has to be more of a "hands on" approach and even then your just as likely to end up in prison yourself.

I think it's a sign of really disturbed values when someone wants to inflict pain/death on someone else just because of some stuff.

I know how awful it feel when your house is invaded by thieves - it's happened to me, and at the time that I discovered the break-in I could quite happily have given the little hoodlums a slap or two. But that wore off pretty quickly. Remember, nowadays domestic burglaries are committed by drug addicts. Usually teenagers or in their early twenties. And, no matter how personally invaded you might feel, remember that they did not target you in particular. They just wanted money for their heroin or crack. I'm not trying to justify this kind of crime - there is no justification - I'm trying to explain it. And in my eyes there's rarely justification for harming another person in cold blood.

An excellent deterrent for this kind of crime is a dog. My user avatar to the left is my American Bulldog, DD. Looks fierce, huh? She isn't really. But when she hears someone outside, she lets loose a volley of monstrous barks that would deter most intruders. Plus when I walk her around my rather rough housing estate, all the potential burglars can get a good look at her pointy fangs.

[xpod]

I think it's a sign of really disturbed values when someone wants to inflict pain/death on someone else just because of some stuff.

Some stuff???..... ok.
Being glad some child abusing piece of scum is no longer around to hurt anybody else is not quite the same as wanting to inflict pain/death on them but hey....i`ll give you that one.


I know how awful it feel when your house is invaded by thieves - it's happened to me, and at the time that I discovered the break-in I could quite happily have given the little hoodlums a slap or two. But that wore off pretty quickly. Remember, nowadays domestic burglaries are committed by drug addicts. Usually teenagers or in their early twenties. And, no matter how personally invaded you might feel, remember that they did not target you in particular. They just wanted money for their heroin or crack. I'm not trying to justify this kind of crime - there is no justification - I'm trying to explain it. And in my eyes there's rarely justification for harming another person in cold blood.

The term "little hoodlum" just doesn`t do the first person i referred to any justice what-so-ever.In fact, i think if you knew what this particular human being had did in the past you`d mabey thing twice about your "slap or two" approach.Then again, mabey not.Personally, i`m glad he`s six feet under, as are many others.The scumbag in question actually died of a drug overdose though and not any "cold blooded" harm you`ll be pleased to hear.

The one that robbed my mothers house a couple of months ago is a forty year old junkie with previous time in Cartairs for battering another old woman senseless.....little hoodlum that he is.


An excellent deterrent for this kind of crime is a dog. My user avatar to the left is my American Bulldog, DD. Looks fierce, huh? She isn't really. But when she hears someone outside, she lets loose a volley of monstrous barks that would deter most intruders. Plus when I walk her around my rather rough housing estate, all the potential burglars can get a good look at her pointy fangs.

I think my mothers Jack Russel had made a bit of a racket too, initially anyway.I cant see her upgrading to a Doberman any time soon though as she is a bit old and frail now.