When you buy a Playstation 3 from your local videogame's store you'd expect it to be Kocher, wouldn't you?
When Christie Myers bought a PS3 for her fiancée, she forked out $350 and then asked the shop, 3-D Games, to post it to her beloved.
"My fiancée thought it would be a good gift for me," Dustin Waller told the Salisbury Post.
What he wasn't expecting was a visit a few weeks later from a Statesville Police Detective and Rowan County Sheriff's deputies informing him that the console was stolen and interrogating him as to why he had it in his possession.
It turns out that the police had tracked the stolen PS3 through the Internet after Waller had signed into the PS3's online service, bought some games via the Playstation Network and played some multiplayer games.
Waller protested his innocence and relayed the story of how he had switched on the console and noticed there was already a user name signed up to the online service. Assuming it was a free promotional account, he used it.
"I'm new to PlayStation altogether. I thought it was an automatic name to sign on," said Waller.
It turns out that the police had tracked down the stolen console to his home address via his IP address. The police had contacted his Internet Provider and obtained a search warrant before heading round there to investigate. Jeez, haven't they got better things to do.
Anyhow, we digress. The police then confiscated the console and Waller did what anyone in that situation would do - head down to the store to get a deserved refund.
However, employees at 3-D Games decided to instead of giving Waller his money back or a replacement PS3, they gave him an Xbox 360 as compensation, which retails at $150 cheaper than the PS3. Not only was Waller out of pocket, he gets a console that he didn't even want.
"I just want the public to be warned about this place," Waller said.
Too right you should warn people, bunch of crooks if you ask us. That's almost as bad the initial crime.
Police believe that the original suspect, who sold the console to 3-D games, may have been involved in a recent spate of burglaries where electrical equipment was stolen. The police had been waiting for the thieves to go online so they could track them.
Source : Salisbury Post via PS3 Daily
