Has anyone ever had their stuff stolen

[sj_bass]

I've had three basses and one amp stolen over the past 30 years... All from my garage, too...

1979 MusicMan Sabre (natural/rosewood)
198x MusicMan/G&L hybrid (Custom paint)
1994 Carvin LB75 (Green/ebony)

199x Trace Elliot amp head...

Needless to say, I don't keep guitars in my garage anymore.

[wrench45us]

not exactly burglarized

I was storing my drums in an attic of a house where a few of us were rehearsing to get a band together.
It was a more or less communal house, back in the day. I lived in another associated communal house down the block. I went out of town for a few weeks and when I came back my drums had been sold in their annual summer yard sale.

Somebody got a very good deal -- it wasn't me.

[trjh2k2]

I tend to lose cables at shows, and some cables just magically 'disappear' from a jam room we share with some other bands, but my best stories are of the cases where I didn't actually lose anything.

The room we jam in is right downtown and gets broken into a couple of times a year. They've knocked down walls, broken windows, taken all kinds of things, and we usually get most of the stuff back- but I've never personally lost anything from this place. All of my stuff is too big to be worth trying to take. After the first couple of break ins, we've been chaining everything together to make it hard to take anything.

I almost lost a bass a week or so after I got it:
I picked up a new bass, first 6 string- an LTD 416sm or something like that, I forget the exact name of it. I brought it out to the next show that I played, and brought my old bass as a backup. This was the biggest place I'd ever played, and had a backstage area, dressing rooms, etc., which I'm not used to. When the show was done, I went back to get my things and only found one of my two basses. I loaded up the rest of my gear back into our cars, then went wandering around, and asking if maybe someone else had picked up the bass for me, put it in another band members car or something. Instead I found a guy in the parking lot smoking, in a group of guys, and a familiar looking hard case at his feet. So I walk up to the guy and ask if he's bass player. He answered with just "... uhhh", so I "ask" if I can see it, and went ahead and opened up the case to verify it was mine. He was lucky that it was me that found him, since some of the other guys helping me look probably wouldn't have hesitated to break some of his bones.

[dfinnegan71]

Yup, I had a 1999 Warwick Streamer stolen at a gig in hartford, CT. right out from under my nose.

[Thedeadking]

I had a refinished Musicman Sabre stolen from me appear here on talkbass sometime after it was stolen.I contacted the seller mentioning how it was stolen from me and pics of the bass and everything.I told him all I want to do is buy it back from you for your price didnt want to deal with any police and he refused to sell it back to me stating that somebody PM him before I did and waiting on him to sell it back.

[throughthefire]

Originally Posted by Thedeadking

I told him all I want to do is buy it back from you for your price didnt want to deal with any police and he refused to sell it back to me stating that somebody PM him before I did and waiting on him to sell it back.

After which, why wouldn't you deal with the police? He was handling stolen property.

[SpecialBlender]

In 1983 we had our van stolen from our drummers driveway with all our gear and my bass laying between the front buckets up against the engine cover.

He drove school bus back then & put out the word to his fellow drivers to keep an eye out for his "old blue" van and let him know if they spotted it. Two hours later he got a call saying it was parked along side the highway about 20 miles out of town near a very small rural settlement.

About 30 minutes later we pulled up and there it was, locked up and not one item missing plus they only used enough gas to drive that far.

As near as we can figure someone badly needed a ride home that night and decided "old blue" fit the bill.

[Goin]

Yes! In 1986 I lost the love of my life. My 76 Burgundy 4001 was stolen from my car.
I think about that bass all the time and wonder whose playing her now!!

[Musiclogic]

Yep, 14 years on the road pretty much meant it would happen at some point. My 88 Tobias was Stolen in Japan, I also had My Art SGX Nightbass stolen in Seattle. In fact, we played in Seattle a few times in the late 80's and seemed to have things stolen in that city everytime we were there....LOL. probably why we stopped playing Seattle and Portland.:banghead:

It sucks, and really makes you mad, but nobody will feel sorry for you or help out so you move on and develop safety measures to try to discouraged someone from taking your stuff.

[Goin]

Originally Posted by eban3

I lost a Rick 4005 in 1977 ,taken out of my locked car at Columbia University , in a brief 10 minutes that i went back into a dorm to get my amp , fast forward 21 years later to a music store in Berkley California where while browsing the shop on one of many trips to the area .......I found it !!!!

So there's still hope for my 76 Rick! Just keep looking, just keep looking.

[catcauphonic]

Originally Posted by Musiclogic

Yep, 14 years on the road pretty much meant it would happen at some point. My 88 Tobias was Stolen in Japan, I also had My Art SGX Nightbass stolen in Seattle. In fact, we played in Seattle a few times in the late 80's and seemed to have things stolen in that city everytime we were there....LOL. probably why we stopped playing Seattle and Portland.:banghead:

It sucks, and really makes you mad, but nobody will feel sorry for you or help out so you move on and develop safety measures to try to discouraged someone from taking your stuff.

You'll hopefully be pleased to know that Seattle has cleaned up A LOT since the mid 90's. Can't speak for Portland though.

[DigitalMan]

Yes, but it wasn't a bad story really. This was 25 or so years ago when I was in high school. I had some older gear stored in a music classroom locked in a closet. Nothing I was bound to miss at all. Turns out my parents homeowners insurance covered everything at full/new replacement value. It turned into a very nice shopping trip.

I'd be crazy upset these days at the violation. Back then I was a bit more pragmatic about the situation.

[2meterbassman]

Me too!

We had a rehearsal room 25 years ago, we shared not with another band, but with a solo artist.
There were exactly 2 keys. We had one, he had one.

And one day our PA power-mixer was stolen.
The door was not broken, it was someone with a key.

We KNEW, who stole it, but we couldn't prove it at the court, because he said, we could have sold it and want to cheat.

He left the court with a grin.

5 years later I saw the powermixer again, on stage in a small club. I recognized it, because of a special small part of plastic that was broken/missing.

But it was too late. 5 years - no chance anymore.
Another 2 years later, when I worked in a discotheque, a guest showed misbehaviour, touched girls in a sexual way etc. and was bounced out, by me.
It was that guy, and he started to push against me and to beat me.

And then he made the most terrible experience of his whole life, my fists.

Am I proud of it? No - but it was hard, good and fair. He lost.

Greetz

[Jammin Johneboy]

So far I have not had any music gear stolen . Many years ago I had my house broken into , the basement was full of my bands gear . Believe it or not none of our gear was taken . But the person did steal my favorite winter coat , thats all surprisingly.

Also when I as about 15 years old we had the owner of a pawn shop living on our street . One day a buddy of mine and I were standing around on the sidewalk talking and he walked up to us and asked if we knew any good houses to break into . We were shocked and he played it down like he was joking . Ever since then I can't help but wonder if some pawn shop owners look for and encourage thiefs to provide them with stuff .

[zon6c-f]

My precious Rick 4001 bugundy-glo stolen from Lenox Square Mall parking lot mid 1980's.

Atlanta Police didn't do more than make a report.

All pawn shops I called assured me that they "never accept stolen property, because all serial # must be registered to Police daliy".

Months later, TV reports told of "security" gaurds at Lenox using security cameras to scope out people leaving valuables in vehicles. No wonder THEY "didn't see anything" either...

Rick 4001 Serial # is in our safe deposit box with opther papers..One day, I WILL POST IT HERE ON T B.

No internet to speak of in those days....I hope it found a good home..I will still welcome it back, regardless of condition..sighs.. It had that acrylic tug bar I NEVER USED...


I will always want my bass retuirned..no questions asked.

[gustobassman]

My stuff was stolen on Jan 18th of this year. I was at work for 2 hours and the house was burglarized in broad daylight. Taken from me was

1997 Fender Am Std Jazz V (i bought it new off the wall at GC in '97)
MTD Kingston Heir 5 with upgraded KZX neck
Squier Precision Standard 5 (i had owned this for only a week)
Aguilar TH500 (less than 2 months old)
All my cables, tuner and Sansamp BDDI.

All of my lady's video gear (professional gear, not hobbyist)
her jewelry
multiple bags and backpacks that they threw OUR stuff in to move it out.

Still waiting on the homeowners insurance to kick in. Our insurance company uses a private firm to get the police reports to the insurance company. Our report came up as "incomplete" with about 20 different reason so the firm was unable to get a copy of the report. Long story short, my lady had to take a day off work to wait in line at the county records office to get our #$%^% report so we could get the process going.

Still not happy.

[The Davil]

I actually had a bass stolen by a TalkBass member. It was only a Squier P, so it isn't the bass being gone that bothers me, rather my loss of faith in human beings that still bugs me four years later.

The Reader's Digest condensed version:
Somebody (I'll call him J) wrote a post saying that he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and, being the fine upstanding person that he was, had to sell his gear to fund the new baby. So now he missed playing and asked if anyone had a bass and amp that he could borrow until he got back on his feet. I thought "poor guy, I've got this Squier that I don't use much". I sent it to him, paying UPS shipping myself, and told him he could do whatever he wanted to with it, mod and setup-wise, as long as it was playable when he sent it back.

I got the UPS notification that it had been delivered. Didn't get anything from him saying thank you or that he had even gotten it. I PM'd and texted him several times, finally getting a response about a week later saying "yeah, I got it but haven't been able to play it yet".

Time went by and I'd sent him a couple of messages asking how the bass was. No reply. I googled his TB username and found his Twitter feed and noticed that it said that he was moving from New Mexico to Florida. Just for giggles, I checked out Craigslist and lo and behold, there's an ad for a Squier that looked just like mine from the exact town/area that J lived in. I sent him several messages asking if he was selling my bass.

I never got any responses from him, and still haven't. I look him up every once in a while on twitter, etc., and think about trying to contact him again about the bass, but I figure it's likely gone forever.

Like I said at the beginning, this one's not about the bass, which is easily replaced, but the lack of common decency in some folks. It still bothers me when I think about it almost four years later.

Thanks for starting this thread - it actually feels better to get this off my chest...

Cheers!

[josiah goldfish]

Did you know you can chip instruments?

I don't know how to find it, but one of the British orchestra luthiers was hired to chip all the instruments of the symphony orchestra (probably London) so that they could be tracked if they were lost. Maybe that'll be commonplace in the future?

[DanBass]

It's a shame really, since I have probably missed out on some fun times mixing around at places we play, pre or post show.

I am sewn to the side of my gear, from the time I arrive, from the time I plug in to the time I pack up. I am rarely never more than 3 feet from my bass.

The club staff don't pay any attention (nor is it their responsibility to watch over my gear), cases and equipment bags, etc tend to look alike, and there are numerous bands, cases and friends/bandmates moving things in and out..

Was playing at a local venue some years ago, and as always I was in close proximity to my bass, and some guy walks by and picks up my case. Obviously I objected and questioned this.. "Um, sorry dude, I thought it was "blah blah blah" band's..." Yeah. Either way, I am not there and my bass is POOF. A beer and some chit chat is not worth it, and I can socalize when I am not playing, or talk to me HERE. LOL

So, I'll miss out on the social aspects and hang with my four stringed "date".

[blindrabbit]

I had my 1990 Fender Precision Lyte stolen from me about 20 years ago or so, along with a Hondo P (my first ever bass). The Hondo was a POS, but it had some sentimental value. The P-Lyte was a great bass, I refinished the neck myself, and it was the first bass I recorded with as well. I really miss that one.

I've had my house robbed before as well, along with my car broken into. So many irreplaceable items taken - all sorts of art, jewelry, my music collection, and things that were one of a kind and had little more than sentimental value to me.

There is nothing cool at all about being robbed. People who do those sorts of things are lowlife scum.