Macbook was stolen before I opened it out of the bag

So I put a brand new macbook into my luggage and it was stolen. The macbook was never turned on, so i could not activate find my iPhone or anything to have a GPS tracking it. The person who stole it can set up the new macbook as if it was theirs to begin with. I called apple and they said there isn't anything that they can do as to tracking the macbook but I find this hard to believe. Isn't there a way for them to type in the serial number or anything to identify my macbook and track it using it that way? I know this seems like a loophole in the system by having something stolen that is brand new, but I feel like there should be a way around it.