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

According to The Standard Online, Ryan Ketsenburg had his Xbox 360 stolen after he and his roommate neglected to lock the door to their dorm room. Fortunately, the left the controller behind.

Eric Franklin Former Editorial Director
Eric Franklin led the CNET Tech team as Editorial Director. A 20-plus-year industry veteran, Eric began his tech journey testing computers in the CNET Labs. When not at work he can usually be found at the gym, chauffeuring his kids around town, or absorbing every motivational book he can get his hands on.
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Eric Franklin
2 min read

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. 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.