Two Xbox Wrongs Possibly Make A Right

January 11th, 2010, 21:03 Posted By: wraggster

Game companies hate when people trade in gaming goods at game shops. Gamers hate the propensity for Xboxes to break. But were it not for these two things, an alleged crime would not have been exposed.

From the files of news-from-December-about-something-that-happened-in-November comes the Daytona Beach, Florida News Journal's tale of a purloined Xbox.

On November 17, a person reports to the police that his Xbox 360 has been stolen from his home, allegedly by a man named Michael Dunbar. The police find their way to a video game trade-in store that has a photocopy of Dunbar's driver's license, fingerprint and proof that — don't get too mad, Microsoft — the Xbox 360 was sold to the shop for $32. Video game companies generally don't like the fact that retailers such as GameStop accept and encourage trade-ins, because the game companies make no money from the re-sales of those traded-in goods.

Our victim had a problem: No serial number for his Xbox 360, ergo no proof that the traded-in 360 was his. But that — don't get mad, gamers — is where the unreliability of Xbox 360 hardware comes in. Now maybe our victim had broken his Xbox 360 himself through his careless gaming. But maybe, just maybe, the machine had one of its issues, as Xboxes do. Usually that would be a bad thing, but in this story, a broken Xbox was just what was needed.

The News Journal reports:

At the time of the report, the victim was not able to provide the police with the serial number of the Xbox. Several days later, the victim's grandmother, who had originally purchased the Xbox contacted the police department and said she had contacted Microsoft Corporation in reference to the investigation. She informed the officer that she previously sent the unit to Microsoft for repairs and when she contacted them they were able to give her the serial number. The serial number provided by Microsoft was identical to the unit Dunbar sold to the video game trader.

As of December, Dunbar faced multiple charges including burglary and dealing in stolen property.

If your Xbox should ever break, send it in for repairs and think of it as protection against potential crooks.

http://kotaku.com/5445521/two-xbox-w...y-make-a-right

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