Stolen Guitars BOLO (UPDATE)

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:07 am

My cousin Frank had two of his prize Rickenbackers stolen out of storage in Madison WI, while he was away on vacation in England. Any of you guys in the Chicago, Milwaukee area please be on the lookout for these guitars. I'm adding some info on these instruments plus pictures of them, if you happen to see them in pawn shops, or music stores..

While in England, I had two of my prized Rckenbackers stolen - one of them my beloved Model 1993 12 string reissue. They were stolen from my storage location with no visible sign of forced entry, all my other guitars, drums, electronics, etc were still there. They went right for the Rics - someone knew what hey were after. So my musician friends, local and otherwise, please keep an eye out for these. The two stolen are pictured here, the two on the left in the group photo and a pic of the 12 string by itself. Thanks everyone.
I should add that the 12 string has a very unique feature - it has a traditional 'f-style' sound hole vs the traditional 'cat eye' sound hole Ric normally uses - a very rare and distinct feature, so it is easily identifiable if seen.

The 2 guitars on the left are the ones that were taken.

Get in touch with me via PM if you see these guitars.

Thank You

Joined: 19 Mar 2012 Posts: 1581

Been through that before! & I am TERRIBLY SORRY for your loss! I really Hope it was some kind of safe & hidden storage and not like a storage locker you rent and they give you the Padlock too, cuz you NEVER wanna go that route as My friends have had MANY of incidents where either they got their tools jacked or Rat $HIT all over their Furniture being in one of those cheao storage lockers! No sign of forced entry on their cases as well , and the Owner of the Facility said there was nothing they could do!!! Shocked

...What does that usually say, "INSIDE JOB", I have been through things like this MNAY of times myself, from an Autographed 1st Year & 1st Month USA Dime3 guitar stolen to my Car getting broke into 3 times over the past 17yrs. Funny thing is , I know EVERY MotherFuckr who did it! And everyone one was an inside job! All happened at different times through out my life, and were different Thieves who did not know one another, I was just an ignorant teen back then and left my possessions out in the open in my ride Mad

...These days I don't even keep a paper sack in view and my buddies call me paranoid, but I call it being SMART & CAREFUL! Wink

I read your story and do not know every single detail , but retrace your steps and if you have a Gut feeling about a guy (Not Always) but it could be him. I at least got to deal with 2 out of the 3 A-Holes who did it, cuz morons like that can never seem to keep their mouths shut, and I will leave my retaliation to myself, cuz 2/3 rd's of vengeance ain't bad! Twisted Evil

I had Detectives on the case ( they could care less) But if you have the serials WHAMMO, that's half the battle and like you said along with what the police detective will tell you,( which you need to get a Detective ASAP) Chk Guitar Center, PAWN Shops, eBay, Craigslist, or any Mom & Pop small music store, cuz they will either try and sell it quick or wait a while til' things simmer down...But yeah the MOST Important thing is the SERIALS, if you cannot remember or have no documentation then find out wherever you bought the Guitars from and see if their computers have it in the system! Again I have been through this and know first hand! I am actually still dealing with it right now and this happened in 97' but after all those years she popped up on the Internet last December! I knew I would see her again, HOPE you do as well! GOOD LUCK!

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:55 am

dbagtoolfan wrote:

Been through that before! & I am TERRIBLY SORRY for your loss! I really Hope it was some kind of safe & hidden storage and not like a storage locker you rent and they give you the Padlock too, cuz you NEVER wanna go that route as My friends have had MANY of incidents where either they got their tools jacked or Rat $HIT all over their Furniture being in one of those cheao storage lockers! No sign of forced entry on their cases as well , and the Owner of the Facility said there was nothing they could do!!! Shocked

...What does that usually say, "INSIDE JOB", I have been through things like this MNAY of times myself, from an Autographed 1st Year & 1st Month USA Dime3 guitar stolen to my Car getting broke into 3 times over the past 17yrs. Funny thing is , I know EVERY MotherFuckr who did it! And everyone one was an inside job! All happened at different times through out my life, and were different Thieves who did not know one another, I was just an ignorant teen back then and left my possessions out in the open in my ride Mad

...These days I don't even keep a paper sack in view and my buddies call me paranoid, but I call it being SMART & CAREFUL! Wink

I read your story and do not know every single detail , but retrace your steps and if you have a Gut feeling about a guy (Not Always) but it could be him. I at least got to deal with 2 out of the 3 A-Holes who did it, cuz morons like that can never seem to keep their mouths shut, and I will leave my retaliation to myself, cuz 2/3 rd's of vengeance ain't bad! Twisted Evil

I had Detectives on the case ( they could care less) But if you have the serials WHAMMO, that's half the battle and like you said along with what the police detective will tell you,( which you need to get a Detective ASAP) Chk Guitar Center, PAWN Shops, eBay, Craigslist, or any Mom & Pop small music store, cuz they will either try and sell it quick or wait a while til' things simmer down...But yeah the MOST Important thing is the SERIALS, if you cannot remember or have no documentation then find out wherever you bought the Guitars from and see if their computers have it in the system! Again I have been through this and know first hand! I am actually still dealing with it right now and this happened in 97' but after all those years she popped up on the Internet last December! I knew I would see her again, HOPE you do as well! GOOD LUCK!

Thank You, they're not my guitars, but my cousin's. And I'm sure he has all the serial #s documented. Oh and I agree, I don't take anything out that I don't want stolen. If it can't be replaced, it stays home. I will never get married either. I don't want some woman telling me they have to be put in storage. Screw her. I'm over the chihuahua syndrome anyway.

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 10203 Location: New Jersey USA

Sorry to hear about the loss. But whenever I put something into storage, I make sure it is insured. If its not, I get a short term storage insurance policy. Better safe than sorry.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:24 pm

If there is no signs of forced entry, then it is indeed an "inside" job. There is a Master key for padlocks and obviously someone had access to it. I think the investigation should begin with the self-storage company and checking into if there have been similiar instances. Someone knew those guitars were in there. Hope he gets them back Felice but at least he should know where to start

I took the liberty to post this on MLP where there is a a lot more members and therefore, many more eyes and contacts. Also, many guitar shop owners in that region so hopefully, they will turn up quickly

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:21 am

Northwinds wrote:

If there is no signs of forced entry, then it is indeed an "inside" job. There is a Master key for padlocks and obviously someone had access to it. I think the investigation should begin with the self-storage company and checking into if there have been similiar instances. Someone knew those guitars were in there. Hope he gets them back Felice but at least he should know where to start

I took the liberty to post this on MLP where there is a a lot more members and therefore, many more eyes and contacts. Also, many guitar shop owners in that region so hopefully, they will turn up quickly

Thanx Ron, I appreciate that.

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:22 am

BradWorld wrote:

Sorry to hear about the loss. But whenever I put something into storage, I make sure it is insured. If its not, I get a short term storage insurance policy. Better safe than sorry.

He did have them insured.

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 3:18 pm

It turns out my cousin went into a pawn shop after they were stolen to report the guitars as "stolen." The MPD detectives went in there a few weeks later and viola! what did they find? Both his guitars in a back room covered under some blankets. Inside job? I'd say so. I can't comment if the MPD plans on prosecuting the pawn shop for receiving stolen property for failure to report. My cousin has since receive a check from the insurance company for the loss.

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 3:43 pm

Thats great news. Are they going to hang on to the guitars as evidence until a case is prosecuted?

Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 1271 Location: Easton Ma

Glad to hear he found them

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:52 pm

Northwinds wrote:

Thats great news. Are they going to hang on to the guitars as evidence until a case is prosecuted?

I can't comment because I've not been given any details what sort of prosecution may be started. But like everyone thought (including myself) the storage place, and the pawn shop are in cahoots with each other. So it was an inside job. The guitars now belong to the insurance company, so it may be their call, if they want to prosecute.

Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 825

Vman wrote:

Glad to hear he found them

+1

Joined: 09 Jul 2007 Posts: 340 Location: cali.

damn that sucks all the way around even though they are recovered, it is good to recover them but now so many people are involved that takes him (the owner) out of control until all is settled. To me , money can not replace some things that you become attached to unless it is greater than the value if you were like me always looking for something cooler. (guilty)
Good luck to your cuz.

Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 2182 Location: New York City

ML Tib wrote:

Northwinds wrote:

Thats great news. Are they going to hang on to the guitars as evidence until a case is prosecuted?

I can't comment because I've not been given any details what sort of prosecution may be started. But like everyone thought (including myself) the storage place, and the pawn shop are in cahoots with each other. So it was an inside job. The guitars now belong to the insurance company, so it may be their call, if they want to prosecute.

I'd think that as well, yikes. Glad to hear it's all been sorted though.

This should be a reminder to everyone to copy down your guitar's serial number, and store it somewhere safe in case it ever gets stolen.