Tracking stolen Playstation 3

[Petitssk]

Long story short, telling my parents to just give up on my drug-addict sister finally paid off - the useless cunt stole my PS3 while I was on vacation and sold it to some random dude for a few bucks.

What I want to know is whether it's possible to track the PS3 using the Playstation Network. I recall a similiar case involving a stolen Xbox 360 which could be tracked down due to an Xbox Live subscription.

Assuming the current owner of my PS3 did log in (trying to get someone to check my last log in), would it be possible to track down the IP?

I'd be extremely grateful for any help regarding this matter since I'm angry way beyond anything I've ever experienced.

[Cayos]

I've never had to do this, but a quick google told me that you might be able to call Sony and get them to both give you the serial number (of your ps3) and the IP address of whoever signed on last. Most pawn shops (if pawn stars doesn't lie) have to write down the serial number and ask the police whether it's been reported stolen. Also, I'm sure the police could do something with an IP address.

[Petitssk]

I've never had to do this, but a quick google told me that you might be able to call Sony and get them to both give you the serial number (of your ps3) and the IP address of whoever signed on last. Most pawn shops (if pawn stars doesn't lie) have to write down the serial number and ask the police whether it's been reported stolen. Also, I'm sure the police could do something with an IP address.

I see, didn't know about the serial number business and the google results seemed fairly old, but directly calling Sony might yield the best results. Thank you!

[Ketna]

best of luck, i have a cousin who is a drug addict and he has stolen a lot of tools and such from his brother and dad, its a sad thing

[Dmitry]

I really hope you get your PS3 back. I know how it feels to have shit stolen cuz of drug addicted people living with you.

Best thing I would think to do is file a police report at the very least, and you could always check local pawn shops if you believe it would end up in one

[Elcura]

Really sucks that you got your stuff stolen. I would definitely go to the police and get them to fill out a report (even if it is your sister). Maybe it'll help if you wanna get a free PS3 or something by sending a copy of the report to Sony.

[Petitssk]

Thank you for all the replies so far!

Just contacted the Sony support.

Apparently, Sony's changed its policies since 2008 or whenever they refused to track consoles.
Procedure goes like this:
-Police contacts Sony, Sony sends some document to the police
-You fill in relevant information (Name of PSN account seems to be sufficient, at least the guy I talked with said they don't require the serial number)
-Police sends it back, Sony tracks down the console and transmits the IP address to the police or whoever's responsible at that point

Assuming the guy goes online, I'm in for some fun I guess. The customer's not really to blame, but I certainly hope the guy from the shop where it was sold goes down.

Checked out all shops in town and eventually found a guy who was bragging about having received the exact same console that was stolen from me. Said he had contacted a customer who had been waiting for months and that it was still there.

When I came back with the police he simply said he had lied about it to encourage me to buy something (because if there's anything that would encourage me to buy something from him, it's the fact that he contacted some dude because he's got a PS3 he's not going to sell to me) and that was it. When the police came earlier (knew where it was sold since my sister had told them about it) he said it had been sold already. To be honest, he's an asshole, but at least he was intelligent enough to offer me pirated copies of Xbox360 games. When I went to the police station later on, they seemed quite interested in that little chunk of information.
The guy's known for buying lots of stolen stuff from drug-addicts, not like he doesn't deserve it.

Anyway, only thing left is hoping that the guy with the console actually goes online, which pretty much everything depends on now.

[Furtwangler]

Good luck

[Mjd]

Good luck sorry for your loss

[Stiker]

I actually had a break-in not too long ago and my PS3 was jacked as well. Honestly, if you know she's already sold the PS3 to some random guy, you might be SOL as is as that'll bypass any pawn shop reporting. You also have to keep in mind that some pawn shops will conveniently "forget" to report items to the police as well--not everyone plays it by the book.

However, I'd suggest you access your PSN account online and make sure at the very least your credit card info isn't saved on there and you have it set to auto-fill your wallet. I know you are wanting to try to catch the guy logging in online, but I'd be more worried about someone accessing my info personally (all your billing address info can be accessed), so I'd suggest changing your password and the email address you use to sign-in. That's what Sony suggested to me after my system got jacked and it kept anyone from dicking around in my account.

Also, if the person that bought the PS3 has half a brain, they can easily restore the PS3 to factory settings which will delete any and all PS3 information on the HDD.

I wish you the best of luck, I know having shit stolen is a royal pain in the ass.

[Petitssk]

However, I'd suggest you access your PSN account online and make sure at the very least your credit card info isn't saved on there and you have it set to auto-fill your wallet. I know you are wanting to try to catch the guy logging in online, but I'd be more worried about someone accessing my info personally (all your billing address info can be accessed), so I'd suggest changing your password and the email address you use to sign-in. That's what Sony suggested to me after my system got jacked and it kept anyone from dicking around in my account.

Oh, good call, I didn't have any billing information or bank accounts linked with my PSN account, but there were some passwords saved on it that I don't want others to know. Changed them now, thanks!
Had a couple of friends on the watch to keep track of my account's online activity, but there's probably nothing to be gained from leaving this issue unattended.

Also, if the person that bought the PS3 has half a brain, they can easily restore the PS3 to factory settings which will delete any and all PS3 information on the HDD.
I wish you the best of luck, I know having shit stolen is a royal pain in the ass.

I think the new (hopefully) temporary owner can do whatever he wants since Sony identifies the console based on the hardware when someone goes online. The way I understand it, they'll identify the console using my PSN account, then find out his IP by looking for the console itself (maybe based on the serial number? I really don't know).

Either way, you're right about this whole issue being a pain in the ass, that was the first time something robbed me of my sleep.
I try to sleep, close my eyes and go through the whole conversations with the shop owner who sold my console. I roll over to the side, there's the empty spot where my console used to be. Been bugging me like crazy, at least it got better starting today ever since I called Sony.
As a precautionary measure, I got things sorted out with my insurance, they'll pay up to 600€. Also contacted various merchants and found one who'll be able to get me another console if necessary.

Got enough backup plans in case Sony can't help me, but I'd certainly rather have my original console back.

[Artemicon]

I'm sure they could go off the mac address on the network ports on the ps3 as far as tracking goes... and you can't fuck that up unless they installed different hardware into the ps3... which wouldn't happen.

[Kaisha]

I'm surprised your insurance would cover you given the cause of the problem was a family member.

[Edgie]

I roll over to the side, there's the empty spot where my console used to be.

This almost makes it seem like you sleep with the console in your bed.

[dannyl]

Wow, i'm curious of any developing updates, just cause I'm curious like that. Sorry to hear about your family member and I hope it works out in the end =/

[Valisk]

I'm surprised your insurance would cover you given the cause of the problem was a family member.

As long as an actual police report is filed then the insurance company has no reason to not treat it as a legitimate case. Family members aren't exempt from the law.

[Petitssk]

Just a little update, but according to the officer in charge of my case Sony's general policy regarding cases like these is "Buy our products in your own country if you ever expect any help whatsoever", which doesn't go too well with a Japanese console being stolen in Germany. I knew that there'd be issues if the console broke, but I didn't expect them to treat theft in the same manner as warranty-related issues (assuming theft does not fall under warranty, I certainly wouldn't put it past them).

Either way, take that with a grain of salt since I don't exactly trust the officer who contacted Sony either, but for now I'll go along with what he said since I've decided against buying another one anyway. Having become a student 500€ from my insurance seem somewhat nice, too. It bugs me a little that I won't get to ruin that guy from the pawnshop, but at least the guy who sold the console for my sister (sold stolen goods from drug addicts all the time) seems to be in jail already since he just so happened to be on probation. Justice, alright!

Either way, thanks for all the help and support here and sorry that I could not quite bring this to a positive ending!


Edit: Nevermind, happened to find one on eBay, lucky me.