my apartment was robbed, looking for advice

[Deca]

Last Friday I came home to find my apartment had been robbed. It looked like they made a beeline for my room and grabbed my computer monitors and every console I had hooked up except my genesis and psx. I'm inclined to believe it was a spur of the moment thing rather than premeditated because just about everything that was taken was immediately visible from the front door. I really hope I just forgot to lock the door, because as mad as I am at myself for that it's a lot less scary than the alternatives. The door has a deadbolt and there was no sign whatsoever of forced entry.

I was hoping to get advice on how to handle the stolen consoles. My PS3, 360, Wii U, Wii, and even my fliptopped PS2 were stolen. They took the deathsmiles faceplate off of my 360 and I believe left the cords for everything but the Wii and WiiU. They grabbed some of the games that were out in the open, I haven't gone through to get a comprehensive list yet but I don't think they got anything more valuable than Gundam Extreme VS. Fortunately I decided to play Battlefield 3 a day or two before it happened, otherwise my SDOJ disc would have been in the 360. I am grateful they didn't just grab everything they saw, a cd rack full of imported psx and saturn games was left untouched, along with a bunch of older rare stuff in my tv stand.

The only console I have a serial number immediately availble for is the WiiU...possibly the Wii but I'm not sure. I have a box and receipt for the ps3 I haven't looked through yet, I'm hoping it has a serial number somewhere on it. The 360 was either replaced or repaired years ago for RRoD, I'm not sure I have an accurate record on that one.

I'm not sure if calling up XBL and PSN support may help me in retrieving an SN or something to help track them. I definitely need to call XBL to get my card information removed from my account. I just want to have some sort of gameplan before I call because I don't want my accounts to be deactivated or made irrecoverable on a new console. If there's any hope at all of retrieving my consoles I absolutely want to, the main thing I'm upset about losing is all of my data on the hdds and memory cards.

Thankfully I do have insurance, I just took out the policy when I insured my new car last January or so. I have a couple friends that dealt with similar situations and had positive experiences, so I know stuff will work out one way or another. I just feel like I need to make an effort to retrieve MY consoles if it's at all possible.

I'd really appreciate any advice, thank you for taking the time to read this.

[Skykid]

Dude, totally fucked up. My worst nightmare, and the reason I have sentry guns active in my hallway (amongst other security devices.)

I feel for you, and I have no idea about property recovery or how it works in the states (or for games stuff specifically.)

That said, I really (really!) hope you'll forgive and permit my amusement at this:

They took the deathsmiles faceplate off of my 360

Sorry, but that just gave me a chuckle. They were probably like, "holy fuck, there's a pedo faceplate on this thing!"

I'm so glad you got insurance (in the nick of time no-less) and the only advice I can give you is don't take any shit from the insurance guy. Stand your ground, because they'll do everything they can to avoid paying you what your stuff is worth. Make sure you don't tell them you left the door unlocked (or even suspect it) because they might be able to claim it as negligence on your part. Just say it was a break in and the lock must have been opened somehow.

[KAI]

Being robbed fucking sux. Wish you good luck recovering your stuff Deca.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm inclined to believe it was a spur of the moment thing rather than premeditated because just about everything that was taken was immediately visible from the front door.

I really hope I just forgot to lock the door, because as mad as I am at myself for that it's a lot less scary than the alternatives.

Unfortunately, this is how a lot of robberies occur. Some crack head or bum sees something shiny you left on your carseat or saw something through your window and jiggles the handle, just to see if the doors are unlocked. If they are, it's quick and easy to swipe whatever they were after. A lot of robberies happen because the robber sees a convenient opportunity, not because they're good at planning or picking locks. I keep my windows drawn constantly partly for this reason and I always, always lock my doors. Like, paranoia locking. I will lock the car door reflexively even when I get in it, and as soon as I get out, and I will often doublecheck the house door and car doors if I can't remember absolutely having locked it. I always try to keep my patio door locked and jammed with a piece of wood.

Granted, nothing will stop someone determined to get in your house, but the goal of locks and keeping blinds drawn is to make it less appealing and more inconvenient. Sadly, I know this doesn't help when you've already been robbed... This is also why you'll see people put up an alarm sticker on their front door or a "Beware of Dog" sign up, on their house door, even if they have neither an alarm system or a dog - it makes the casual shitbag burglar less likely to see it as an appealing target.

It might be possible to keep an eye out for anyone who tries to connect to the internet on one of your consoles and report their IP Address to the police, track them down that way. Even if you don't remember your console serial numbers, it might be possible to contact Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo and ask them to give you the serial number of the console your account last connected with or to keep an eye for anyone dumb enough to connect using your account. It's definitely worth a try at any rate and there's no harm in trying.

They took the deathsmiles faceplate off of my 360 and I believe left the cords for everything but the Wii and WiiU.

They probably thought it was a custom or readily identifiable faceplate, and if they were trying to fence/pawn the Xbox it'd be safer to put a basic faceplate on it. Cables are obviously inconvenient to drag around in a heist too. Unfortunately, they will probably wipe any hard drives they stole (if they're smart) in order to make it less obviously stolen so chances are even if you do get your consoles back, you're most likely going to have your downloads and save data gone.

That gives me another idea - check any local pawn shops you have, any video game stores, anywhere you think they'd likely try to sell your stuff. If you can get your serial numbers, you can always check in at a pawn shop with any recently sold consoles to see if the stuff belongs to you, or even drop in, ask them to call you if someone tries to sell them something you know was on your list of stolen stuff, just in case. Obviously, you should immediately cancel any credit cards you linked to your console accounts, you don't want them being able to guess your password and potentially start going on a shopping spree either (this is why I don't bother tying a credit card/paypal to my console, safer just to buy those MS points reload cards).

[Jonathan Ingram]

I just want to have some sort of gameplan before I call because I don't want my accounts to be deactivated or made irrecoverable on a new console. If there's any hope at all of retrieving my consoles I absolutely want to, the main thing I'm upset about losing is all of my data on the hdds and memory cards.

The first thing you should do is check your PSN and XBL accounts from PC(if you don`t have a PS3/360 handy) to see if they`ve been messed with and change the passwords. Then, access your PSN account through this site, go to 'Media and Devices' and deactivate your PS3(a PSN account is limited to just two PS3s and two PSPs/Vitas at a time, so you probably don`t want the stolen PS3 to be occupying one of the four available slots).

As for retrieving the stolen systems, I`d say it`s not worth the hassle. Check if you can still access your PSN and XBL accounts, change the passwords, buy a new PS3 and 360 and simply re-download all the stuff.

[Deca]

My friend and I did contact the nearest pawn shops and gamestop. Also informed my friend that works at one of the biggest second hand game shops in the area that recently started paying cash for consoles. He informed his manager and the owner and said he would be working every day this week.

Due to the sloppiness of the theft I'm not sure I'm dealing with people intelligent enough to go the extra mile. One thing that they stole was my roomates turtle beach headset that happened to be in my room, and they didn't take the base unit so it's completely useless. Also left the 360 power supply. Regardless, I know I need to call the various services and remove all my card information today. I think I'll be able to remove the card from my XBL account if I can just call them and ask to turn off the automatic renewal on gold. Like I said, I'm worried about saying anything that could cause them to permanently deactivate my account. I don't believe my PSN or Wii U has any cards tied to it that can be used without a PIN. I don't think it'll be necessary to completely cancel my card, I may just call my bank and tell them to notify me if any charges from the eshop, XBL or PSN come through.

No offense taken Skykid, I honestly found it a little amusing as well (at least as much as I could muster at the time). I'm probably also lucky that my PC tower is enormous and pink, that may have been all that kept them from taking it.

The dog sign on the door isn't a terrible idea. My apartment isn't really visible from the outside at all, it's on the third floor. The only way someone could have seen in is through an open front door. I am always extremely paranoid about locking doors, I'll walk all the way back out to the parking lot to doublecheck my car if I feel the slightest bit doubtful. I just want to believe that I left it unlocked because I don't want to think that the people who stole my shit just have a key to the place. I'm going to be talking to the landlord about getting the lock changed and maybe having a second one installed.

To be totally honest I'm really thinking about moving. I've always felt this area was a little shadier than I really liked, but I never thought that this could actually happen to me. It's basically my worst fear being realized and I just don't feel safe at all.

As for retrieving the stolen systems, I`d say it`s not worth the hassle. Check if you can still access your PSN and XBL accounts, change the passwords, buy a new PS3 and 360 and simply re-download all the stuff.

That's kind of what I'm thinking, I'm just afraid that as soon as I do that I'll find them or something.

[Jonst]

Sorry to hear that deca,this happened to me many years back.Very similar,took a couple of consoles and left most of the games and cables.Any receipts you may have for any expensive imports may help.In my case the loss adjuster didn't believe the value of a lot of the items,so it helped out.hope you can sort this as painlessly as possible.

[Deca]

Sorry to hear that deca,this happened to me many years back.Very similar,took a couple of consoles and left most of the games and cables.Any receipts you may have for any expensive imports may help.In my case the loss adjuster didn't believe the value of a lot of the items,so it helped out.hope you can sort this as painlessly as possible.

Unfortunately I keep most game receipts in the cases themselves, might have to reconsider that now. However, the overwhelming majority of my expensive purchases are imports online, so I definitely have a digital record of them. Aside from Gundam Extreme VS I'm not sure they grabbed anything that can't be easily replaced at gamestop.

[brentsg]

I'd contact Xbox Live and PSN to see if they can brick the consoles.

Microsoft has an online transfer tool that you can use to transfer all your software licenses and DLC to a new Xbox as well. I'm not sure how PSN handles this.

[moh]

best wishes, bud.

hope this all gets sorted out

[system11]

It sucks, been through this myself except they forced the windows getting in. Forget about your old console - you'll never see it again, just get the insurance money and spend part of it installing a house alarm.

[superpretendo]

One of my worst nightmares. Sorry to hear that happened, and I really hope you get some of your stuff back.

[DJ Incompetent]

I got robbed in michigan too. We can start a support group!

You'll have to do your own detective work to locate any stolen stuff. Police won't lift a finger unless your suspicions are argued reasonably. Crime tech is out the window too. Nobody's gonna fingerprint or check security cams. Any tracking software you have running, you may have to demo to the police dept just to prove this can work as a tool.

If you haven't yet, start opening up your game cases. When I got jacked, they took some game cases and I realized a day later they took the time to open every game case left behind and only removed the disc.
If you find out more games are missing, Make a dirty spreadsheet or multi-column word doc with your titles. Stick to calling about the rare and uncommon games when contacting gamestops. They may just lie to you over the phone and not bother to look for the key rare games like they did to me (in ypsi). You're really just getting the word out there that you're looking (which you've done already). I had to visit surrounding gamestops in person and scan their used game racks to deduce the gamestop my games were sold to. Approach a gamestop manager with the full list of what was stolen along with the business card of the working officer and your case number and the staff should start cooperating.

If you have any old pics proving you own the stuff you're gonna claim insurance for, start looking for those to add to your claim. The leftover game cases usually suffice as proof you owned the consoles. They did for me.

Expect insurance to give about 2/5 back for the value of your stuff. At this point, you'll prolly start mentally consolidating what parts of gaming actually matter to you, and build a leaner collection from now on.



If you want, I can give you my old 360, no charge. The catch is it'll red ring in under 3 months. There is a shop near you called GamesAGalore that'll repair E74 errors for $40 the first time, and if they have the same warranty as my branch in Taylor, they'll repair it again for free forever if you provide the repair receipt.

[Deca]

This actually occured in Ypsi as well, I've been living there for a little over a year. I'm already looking at places in Ann Arbor with a couple friends in the same building. I just don't think I'm ever going to feel right in this apartment again.

I think I'm going to do a proper lookthrough and get my list going today. I spoke with my insurance company for quite some time yesterday and they explained how everything is going to work. They'll apparently devalue everything based on its age, and give me a check for that total amount. However, if I use the money to replace an item with the same thing and send them the receipt and all that they'll refund me the difference. Alternatively I can have them do the shopping for me and send the stuff along to skip that step.

I fortunately have the boxes, receipts, and some SNs for the consoles. Unfortunately I keep all the receipts for my actual games in their cases, so if anything was stolen along with the box they got the receipt as well. Expensive/import stuff like Extreme VS I have receipts from online purchases however. I'm wondering if the fact a bunch of my Wii U and 3DS games are registered online will help as well, and I think the gamestop rewards thing may keep a list of what you've purchased as well.

I really appreciate the offer of the 360, though with luck I don't think it'll be necessary. I'd been meaning to get a 360 slim for a while just so I'd have to be less concerned about a red ring in the future...though I wasn't really planning on losing all of my data.

At any rate, if you're in the general area would you mind shooting me an email at davefokker2@gmail.com? I can send the list back your way and if you could just sort of keep an ear to the ground or something that'd be cool. Obviously not asking you to go too far out of your way or anything. I just feel like I need to cover my bases, I don't want to look back and feel like I didn't try hard enough.

I guess I'll also post the list here once I have it completed, it couldn't hurt.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Commiserations Deca i'm really sorry to hear about this, hope you get things straightened out as well as possible. On the subject of the door being locked but no forced entry, it is possible the dickhead responsible used a bump key. I'm not sure how well known this method is but it's frighteningly easy to open most locks using one without leaving much of a mark (possibly some scratches around the actual keyway).

With regard to finding these guys and getting your stuff back it might also be worth checking out the small ads in your local paper / gumtree. Long shot but who knows?

Anyways all the best bud.

[gabe]

Really sorry dude... Best of luck rebuilding.

Probably not helpful, but I've heard of a LOT of apartment break-ins in the A2/Ypsi area lately.

[Ed Oscuro]

Commiserations Deca i'm really sorry to hear about this, hope you get things straightened out as well as possible. On the subject of the door being locked but no forced entry, it is possible the dickhead responsible used a bump key. I'm not sure how well known this method is but it's frighteningly easy to open most locks using one without leaving much of a mark (possibly some scratches around the actual keyway).

With regard to finding these guys and getting your stuff back it might also be worth checking out the small ads in your local paper / gumtree. Long shot but who knows?

Anyways all the best bud.

eBay and Craigslist also will be obvious places people might want to ditch things...

Checking local pawns might be a bit less emotionally exhausting. They should keep a record of the perps. Anyway, check this out: link

[CMoon]

I've had my car robbed a couple times, and stuff taken right out of my apartment while I was sleeping. Then when I moved to CA, the movers stole about half my video games and movies. That last bit was enough to change my attitude on it and say 'it's only stuff'. No one wants to steal my music collection anymore, and I suspect movies are about the same, and if your risking fucking jail time for video games your a sad sack of shit anyway.

Well my point being that I can replace all that shit (except the porn on my hard drive, those fuckers would have to go down!) and having had these guys walk right into my place while I was there makes me more happy to be alive and safe. I don't like them breaking my car door just to sell my stereo for $20, but jesus, I can buy a new stereo.

Anyway (and this probably blows peoples minds), once I moved to LA I haven't been robbed once. Who would have thought?

[TrevHead (TVR)]

As someone who has been burgled in the past and lost most of my gaming collection I know that it isn't a pleasant thing having to start from scratch again. I guess the best thing about digital games is that local thieves can't steal your games and just the hardware.

It would be nice for newer console to include online trackers to locate stolen goods, however it's probably not high enough on MS & co's list of priorities.

[idchappy]

That's a bad one mate , I hope you manage to get your stuff back.

[Deca]

Here's my preliminary list. I feel like I'm still forgetting something, and I'm planning to outline the two skateboards separately since I know the details of every individual part on them.

Turns out they didn't actually get Gundam Extreme VS. I was sure it was in the stack next to my ps3 but I apparently moved it into the side shelves and completely forgot about it.

[jonny5]

So pretty much everything they took was games/consoles? Was there nothing else to take, like did they walk past other easily stolen things and go straight for your games?

Have you had any roommates move out? Anybody with keys?

Seems a bit odd that they just took your games and nothing else. If it were me, and the door wasn't busted, I'd be looking at people that you know, as bad as that sounds.

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't like them breaking my car door just to sell my stereo for $20, but jesus, I can buy a new stereo.

At least they didn't steal copper wiring or pipes.

[Deca]

There's noone I suspect really, I keep to myself and very close friends a lot and very few people are in and out of my apartment. I've been living with the same roommate for 3 years now or longer, and he and his girlfriend were out of town for the weekend at a music festival in Ohio. This is only a list of what was stolen from me, they also got my roommates airsoft rifle in its case (probably close to $1k worth of gun/modifications/case) and he and his girlfriends laptops from the living room. Turns out they did go through his room after all and I just didn't realize because it's always kind of a mess. They mostly went through his closets it seems.

I'm inclined to believe it was unplanned. The stands that held all of those consoles and the games that were stolen was the first thing you'd see from the front door, and the monitors were on a desk immediately to the left. My room door was directly in line with it and propped open with a box fan.

Our realtor apparently subcontracts all maintenance and has universal keys from what I've heard. Furthermore someone in the complex has been routinely breaking the locks on the outside doors to the building, presumably so that they can deal out of their apartment. The company has been horribly unresponsive to maintenance requests, never stays on top of repairing the MAIN LOCKS ON THE BUILDING and as far as I know has never lifted a finger to evict anyone regardless of the amount of complaints or legal problems.

At any rate, I already have a strong lead on a new house to rent with two friends that also want to get the hell out of this apartment.

[DJ Incompetent]

email get!
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That is a strange pattern tower computers are ignored in committing the Ypsi crimes.
I only was jacked disc games and two projectors (joke's on them, one was broken, hah!).
They ignored my consoles, cartridge games, CRT TVs, CRT monitors, and 2 PCs.

Now that I think about it, do pawn shops typically sell computers? Maybe it's like they don't want the overhead of having to reformat anything or deal with tracking operating system licenses.
I know flea markets always have a dude that sells PCs, so there's that...

[Deca]

I'm just unspeakably relieved that my tower wasn't stolen, or even visibly damaged. I haven't started it up yet so I shouldn't be counting my chickens though I suppose. Really would have been nice if they'd passed over my consoles as well...though I may have been caught in a shitty situation where I was unsure if it was worth claiming or not had they only stole games, I suppose.

Whatever, I'm done with Ypsi. I'll still come out here for Sidetrack and Corner Brewery and the Hudson museum but I never want to live anywhere near here again. I'll miss skating on the EMU campus.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Atleast they didn't nab that many of your games so that's a silver lining I guess.

From what you've described about for apartment complex and drug dealing neighbours, moving out might be a wise decision, especially if your apartment sticks out among your neighbours as rich pickings.

I don't like them breaking my car door just to sell my stereo for $20, but jesus, I can buy a new stereo.

At least they didn't steal copper wiring or pipes.

Lol it doesn't surprise me that's West Yorkshire, copper and lead theft is rife over here. As is ppl stealing the old Yorkshire stone pavements.

[Deca]

So uh, interesting development.

I've always shared a Netflix account with a friend of mine from back when we lived together. I'm the only other person he's ever given the login information to and it was cached on both my ps3 and 360. Last night when he went to use Netflix he saw a LOT of shit that he had most certainly not watched. Had to be coming from one of my devices. We happen to have a friend that works as a sysadmin at Netflix, so we called him up immediately and he sent us back the logs straight away. They confirm that it was coming from my PS3, and list ISP and IP addresses along with timestamps for every individual show they were watching. My friend ran a traceroute on the IP and it only bounced off of 2 routers, so there's a fair chance that it's coming from inside the apartment complex.

We called the police right after we received that and got in touch with the officer handling the case. He asked us to come down to the station (it was 1 or 2am I believe) and we explained everything to him and he took down all of the information. He mentioned possibly bringing in detectives and said that all they had to do was subpoena Comcast for the information. We heard from my friend at Netflix that they called him to follow up and confirm right after we spoke with him as well.

I'm really hesitant to get optimistic about retrieving my things, but I'm starting to get hopeful about catching this fucker at the very least.

[spoot]

Nice update.....hope they nuke em.

[BIL]

Excellent, good luck nailing 'em and hopefully retrieving your stuff.