This is a post I wish I never had to make. Forgive my grammar and spelling as I am a bit emotional.

My Steam Deck was stolen and I just had it for less than 2 months.

It has been more than 2 weeks since it happened but it still hurts the same. I wanted to make this post because it was a very costly mistake from my side and I don’t want it to happen to anyone else.

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It happened when I was shifting from one house to another house and there were lots of maintenance workers at the destination house. After I kept my luggage inside the house, I left to buy some essentials. My mom was the only person left who was watching over the stuff. By the time I came back, the workers had left. I thought I have some free time so decided to pull the Steam Deck out but it was missing.

<vent>

I was absolutely devastated; I can’t even begin to explain in words what it felt like. I asked, through the person who hired the workers, if they took it. But all the workers refused. I was just crushed; I could feel my heart dropping into my stomach. Even now, as I am typing this story, that emotion is replaying.

</vent>

After this happened, I removed all payment methods from my Steam account (Steam Guard 2FA was already active). I saw after 5 days that the Steam Deck was online for a brief period of time, via Steam Guard. I purposefully didn’t sign out of the device because I wanted the thieves to make the mistake of signing in and giving me some clue about their location; the Steam Deck was still inside my city. I took the IPs and submitted it to the police and asked them if they could track it. They said they will try their best since getting the customer details from an IP is a “lengthy and time-consuming process”. But at this point, I can’t do anything; it’s not possible for me to visit all the worker’s home individually and check as I don’t have the authority. I gave up and convinced myself to move on.

</story>

This taught me a lot of things and I wanted to share with the community, now that I have slightly recovered mentally.

Secure your luggage when moving

When you are moving, you usually have a million thoughts in your head. This can cause you to neglect your luggage’s safety. If you are going to unload your luggage temporarily, KEEP IT IN A SECURE MANNER FIRST and then do everything else.

A secure manner could mean

  • Under someone’s watch
  • Putting it far away from the exit
  • Putting a lock on the luggage
  • Putting it inside a cabinet and locking it

Don’t just unload the luggage and start doing something mentally involving.

Be wary of outsiders

Sometimes, there will be outside people in your home. It’s crucial to keep the Steam Deck out of reach of everyone. Not everyone is a thief but different people have different moral standards. Don’t create a tempting scenario for others. Keep it secure when there are guests/workers at your place.

Put some form of tracking on the device

The Steam Deck is like a traditional laptop; it has no SIM or GPS. Once it’s lost, it’s really hard to get it back. There are methods by which you can track the Steam Deck (Steam Guard) but it involves IP and it’s not enough to get an exact location. Other than law-enforcement, no one can find the customer details associated with an IP address.

An alternate approach, which can be slight pricey, is to put a Tile tracker on the device. There are tutorials on how it can be attached to the device.

Note: I’m not associated with Tile in any way.

Get the official Serial Number and MAC ID of the device

It will help you to uniquely identify the device IF it gets stolen. You may find the serial number on

  • The bill of purchase
  • Inside the Steam Deck settings section
  • On the Steam Deck package
  • You can ask Steam support for the serial number once it’s associated with your account The MAC ID is present on the Steam Deck settings page (and also on your access point logs if it has connected even once).

I hope this post is educational and makes you wary of the physical dangers around us. Please keep your handhelds or any valuables safe

<vent>

What hurts even more is that the Steam Deck, which was the 1 TB OLED model, was a gift from a very special person and I feel like I have betrayed that person by losing it. I had lots of plans with the device, like making a couch plug-and-play setup, a retro gaming setup, a productivity device by using desktop mode, etc. But all my plans were shattered in an instance. I’m now convincing myself to move on to something else.

</vent>

Edit: As of 20th August, I can see via Steam Guard that the device was logged into a few hours ago (2 weeks post the burglary). I know the risks involved in keeping my device signed in. I’m counting on the person’s stupidity. Any proper thief would have formatted the device.

  • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzMEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    lots of maintenance workers at the destination house.

    Did these people work for a specific company? Complaining to the company directly about stolen items or leaving negative review of the company might help.

    Either way it really sucks though, I’m sorry you went through that.

    • Pup Biru@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      even not a specific company: mention to all of them that it was stolen while they had a pretty limited group of people at the house

      you might think it’s a case of “how would they know who there’s no point”, but people who steal things like this likely didn’t do it just once… it is, or will become a pattern of behaviour. if nobody reports it, they have no chance of identifying a pattern of behaviour to narrow down the culprit… if a company gets 2 or 3 reports of stolen items from houses that an individual employee is working at, it becomes pretty clear who the culprit could be

      you even have pretty good evidence that it was stolen rather than lost: the fact that it came online for a period means someone has it and has connected it to a network and then not reported it lost

      do make it clear though that you’re not insinuating that their company specifically is to blame; you just want them to know in case they have future problems. you don’t want them getting defensive, because that’s not productive for anyone

  • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    3 months ago

    When it comes to small expensive electronics, you can never be too careful.

    I was still in school when the PSP came out, and I had one on launch. I was dumb and was taking it to school daily, but I was very careful not to leave it out of my sight. One day in science class, it was stolen from right under me as it was inside my backpack, which was under my chair the entire class.

    At the time, I blamed the 2 trouble makers in front of me since at points I was facing the back of the class for a group activity. I found out years later it was the Mormon next to me I trusted, who I can only assume expertly unzipped my bag and slipped it out while nobody was paying attention. I never got that PSP back, and I ended up buying another one later, both with my own money… It was a brutal reality check that taught me a handful of lessons in life

  • Xirup@yiffit.net
    0·
    3 months ago

    Dumb question, the Steam Deck of the image is yours or you could never get it back? In a first instace I think that the Steam Deck in the image was yours.

    • xavier666@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      It’s not mine. Just a random image which is like my emotional state at the time of the event.

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    It’s really insane that paid help went digging through your shit and stole an expensive item. I do not think that is something people would or could expect.

    • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@fedia.io
      0·
      3 months ago

      The only country I’d trust paid help in is Japan. Anywhere else and it is very likely a considerable portion are either thieves or one unlocked door away from thievery. Doesn’t matter if it’s in my home or in their shop(like for a car).