I just bought MY OWN STOLEN PROPERTY!

I posted here last October, explaining that I suffered through two tragedies that month. My mother died on the 8th, and my apartment was broken into and about $4500 worth of electronics, music CD's and computer software was taken. I had pretty much resigned myself to never seeing any of my property again.

I went on Friday afternoon to a Gamestop store to trade in what was left of my collection of games for the original PlayStation, to get store credit so that I could buy a couple of computer games and maybe replace either my stolen PlayStation 2 or my Game Boy Advance SP (GBA). Once I found out how much I would get I chose to buy a new GBA. There were some used games there that caught my eye because I used to own them and I figured that for less than $20 each it would be nice to have them back.

One of the games I bought a used replacement of is a remake of a Dungeons and Dragons-type RPG called Eye of the Beholder. The other two games I bought were new in box. So, I came home and showed Jeanette the stuff I got, and then I opened up the new GBA and put in the used game to test everything. When you turn on the GBA with that particular game in it, the first thing you'll see after the title screens is the saved data files (there are two save slots) along with the names of the characters in each save file. To my utter amazement, the lists of characters in the save files were THE EXACT SAME ONES my wife and I had created back when we owned the game. We used our first names, our cats' names, our last name backwards or whatever other quirky stuff came to mind as we were creating our dungeon groups.

So, I now know that whoever stole my stuff was either too disinterested or too damn stupid to ever play the game or even wipe out the saved-game files before finally dumping my stuff on Gamestop (presumably for cash, but whether cash or store credit the company requires ID). I called the store and immediately went back to talk to the manager. I showed him my ID again so he could see my last name and then I let him look at the saved data files on that cartridge. He agreed with me that the odds of somebody else in Las Vegas using the same names for their own characters are probably quintillions to one (I don't think 5 other people in Vegas have my last name).

I called the LVMPD but the office in charge of stolen property was already closed. The manager of the store gave me the district manager's number and promised that he would both call and e-mail her with a description of what happened, along with a partial list of my other stolen games. I plan to call her, as well as the LVMPD Property Crimes Division office, on Tuesday in the hopes that there are still records somewhere of just WHO sold or traded that game in the hopes that there will be more titles in that transaction that I used to own.

I don't know if there's anything that can be done after seven months, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at the very least, the assholes who took almost everything of any value I have will get their due. All I know is that if they're minors I will sue the LIVING S**T out of their parents!! Send some good karma my way, fellow DU'ers, and I will keep you posted! Thanks for taking the time to read this long thread. :)

"Payback is a bitch"

The way Gamestop inventories their used games, every time the price is changed a new tag is put on it with the new date on it and stuff. So, the only way to correlate all of this is for somebody, somewhere, to do an awful lot of cross-checking and referencing... and that's if they can do anything at all at this point. I won't know until Tuesday at the earliest. But I'm certainly praying in my own agnostic, vaguely paganistic way....

What is most striking here is that, again, that game was away from me for SEVEN MONTHS and yet NOBODY ever bothered to play it and write their own data files on the cartridge. So, it's probably 99% certain OR BETTER that whoever sold it to Gamestop was directly involved. It's not as if they got their paws on it at the swap meet, played it for a while and got tired of it... right?

Perhaps the manager could suggest an alternative to all that searching. Get my drift?

"All I know is that if they're minors I will sue the LIVING S**T out of their parents!! Send some good karma my way, fellow DU'ers, and I will keep you posted!"

That seems funny to me.

I'm interested to see how it resolves though! I'll be looking for your future posts.

.jc.

Yeah, that's kinda out of line, but consider how I feel over this and know that while I pride myself on my honesty I am certainly prone to a bit of dramaticizing now and again. :)

but as far as suing the parents because they're minors... while sometimes I agree with that as some parents don't give a damn what their kids are doing, there are some that are living a nightmare with out of control kids and are trying everything to get them to straighten out.

On the other hand, if they're minors they will have to face the music with the courts too so make them face a judge and hopefully get some help in the end.

Good luck, I know I wanted the head of whomever broke into my house once...

on edit: btw - sorry for the loss of you mother :-(

I think I'll base my decision on what to do in that regard on how said parents handle the whole thing, as well as how many previous times the kids have been in trouble. Most likely I will accept an apology and an effort to return any other stolen goods they might still have on them (such as my binder full of software CD's... probably 80 or 90 games including many old DOS games that are almost impossible to find).

Then again, if they're NOT minors, I can seek restitution directly from them.

Mom and I went out to decorate family graves today in the small town she grew up in Kansas. Probably 500 graves in the cemetary. A year or two ago, someone had stolen a rather large clip-on faux floral arrangement off of my grandma and grandpa's tombstone. The next year, they had put it on the tombstone not 10 feet away from where my father is buried (a different part of the cemetary). My mom recognized it and plucked it off so it's back in the family now.

Oh, and I took a sledge hammer to the tombstone it was on to pay them back. Okay, not really. :)

Now quite as weird as yours, but it's a nice little bit of cosmic justice.

TlalocW

I mean, stealing the property of somebody who's DEAD and the dead person's family, so as to honor some other dead person? If I were the individual who was laying beneath those other people's grave I'd be ROLLING AROUND in that sumbitch. :grr:

So when she tells the story, it's with a certain satisfaciton that she was able to get the arrangement back, and it didn't require much effort or walking to do so. :)

TlalocW

We put up a wreath at his gravesite at Christmas and people decide that they like it a lot and steal it. It upsets my mom, and infuriates me that people are so low.

They also could possibly lift a finger print off of the container and find the rest of your stuff.

They keep them in a display case and you just look at the title label on the game.

Otherwise, that's a great idea, and I thank you for trying. :)

Good luck! :thumbsup:

You've got a potential lead on these scumbag capitalists who took your stuff. Prosecute them until their testicles shrivel up and fall off. And if they were minors, DO sue the parents for all they're worth.

Thanks for the update and keep posting!

When I was in college, a "friend" broke into my house and stole all of my electronic equipment. Little did I know that my "friend" was a crack head. The moron went to a pawn shop less than a half a mile from my house, pawned my stuff and signed his own name. I of course went there on my tour of local pawn shops and saw my stuff. The owner said I would have to pay for it to get it back. I called this guys father and he paid to get my stuff. He later called me and asked me not to press charges because it is the "lords way to forgive." I said whatever and pressed charges and my former friend has a felony on his record. Bastard.

Get them to pull the records and compare the property to the police report that was filed.

If the merchant dosen't have records or an inkling of who the property was from, the police may check into that too.

1st) I hope you get all your stuff back

2nd) While I understand your rage, if you want to focus on Karma, I can't condone your planning on suing the parents for everything they are worth, that's just bad karma.

I'm glad that you found your games, and all the effort they involved, granted you were inconvenienced, you even had stuff stolen, but is that worth some kid's parents losing their house?

That's amazing! I hope something really bad happens to those who stole that shit off of you. Justice!!!

By the way, Eye of the Beholder = hard as hell.