Stolen Xbox One Serial Number
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Xbox One Locator
I just finished going through this. There's an excellent post on here somewhere about somebody else that did it as well. EDIT, here it is:In a few words: Give the police the serial number, tell them to contact Microsoft to trace the console by serial number (they can also trace by Gamertag, but serial number is best in case they create their own Gamertag or you replace the xbox and start using your gamertag again). Once the police get the IP of the thief, they can contact the ISP (Time Warner, AT&T, etc) and get the address. Hopefully from there, they will go get your Xbox. This process takes about 2 months.
You have to explain things very clearly to the detective, because the idea of Xboxes and Gamertags, and possibly even IP addresses could get confusing. You can possibly even suggest that they talk to their cyber unit. There was a lot of misunderstandings with my detective that I had to correct at each step of the process.In more words: Here's what happened to me.
Xbox was stolen on Thursday night. I immediately called the police and they came out. I gave them my serial number and a full list of what was stolen. Then I called Xbox and changed my Live password. My girlfriend had a Silver account on there that I left unlocked, to bait the person who stole it to use her Gamertag. Depending on who answers the phone, they might actually know the process of what to do in this situation. One person told me they can't do anything like mark the console stolen and lock it out, but another person told me that the police could contact the legal department at MS and trace it.By Friday night, my girlfriend's gamertag was playing games I had on the hard drive.
It was still my 'Home Xbox' so all users of the console could play games I owned. On Sunday, I was visiting my family out of town and bought a new Xbox. I made it my home Xbox, which means that the thief couldn't play my digital games anymore. Eventually they stopped using my girlfriend's gamertag and created their own (I wouldn't know they created their own until I got it back. There's no way to tell from your end).I had to explain to the detective that people have recovered their Xbox before by having police contact MS and getting the IP, etc.
Initially she said that 1-800-MY-Xbox told her that I could log in to my MS billing account and see IP addresses, but those are only for computer and phone logins because I had disabled my account on the stolen xbox before they could use my ID. You definitely can't track IPs by console serial number. Eventually the detective called back and got them to give her information about the console. I'm not sure what this data dump looked like, but I know at least part of it was based on Gamertag, because she said that she thought my Xbox was in Cincinnati (where my parents live and where I activated my new Xbox). I had to tell her to ignore that so that the police didn't show up at my mom's house.
Block Stolen Xbox One
Luckily the other IP registered to somebody about 15 minutes away. The police went there 'on consent' and apparently just knocked on the door and asked for the Xbox back. The guy gave it back to them (sans my Titanfall controller, the game that was inside of it, and the laptop that was stolen along with my Xbox).
Stolen Xbox One Serial Number Lookup
The detective said he claimed he bought it on Craigslist, but was dodgy about IDing the seller and changed his story about it a few times. Anyway, the police really only gave me updates when they contacted MS, when MS replied with the IPs and then when they got the Xbox back. They may be building a case against the kid, but I think at this point I'm out of that loop.Also, I claimed the Xbox and laptop to insurance and they gave me about $300 for the Xbox. There's a clause that if the property is recovered, it technically belongs to the insurance company. So I thought I'd Do The Right Thing and let them know. My agent said 'Well, how much is the recovered Xbox worth to you? We can send somebody out to collect it, or you can just 'buy' it back from us.'
I said I wasn't sure what it was worth to me since I already bought a new one, and she said 'Well, like $10, 20 bucks?' And I agreed to $20. Mailed them a check, and sold it to my friend for really cheap! Not a bad ending I suppose, though the laptop is still missing. Not sure why, but Find My Mac still hasn't pinged on the laptop.