Sweetwater reports major theft

[cnltb]

These were already paid for. These were stolen from folks, not corps.

And thieves are the second most worthless, pieces of poopie, dirt bags, on the planet. I hope whoever is responsible dies a very slow and very painful death. They most definitely earned that.

As long as they are still with the company, no individual customer has lost anything, will now just have to wait a little longer.
I do not condone the act of stealing at all, just putting this one into perspective a little.
Yes, this obviously is extremely annoying.

 

[PaulCISSA]

A person(s) that is willing to steal from another is generally capable of much worse and is often without empathy towards others. Those persons are defective at best and evil at worst. I do my best to keep those personalities as far from my family as I can. The goons that vacuumed up those 13 guitars knew they were there and had a plan for them. And they suck .

 

[ClusterFlux]

In a perverse way, this just points out the value of a guitar these days. Thieves usually only steal what they think has value...

Theft of musical equipment is not new. It's been a problem for a long time, and not just the occasional theft of a famous axe from a famous person.

I'm sure big instrument retailers get hit on a fairly regular basis. It just isn't usually a bunch of limited edition $10,000 guitars.

 

[Ostie]

Okay, where were all of you on the day in question?

 

[Neil Folkard]

First, stealing musical instruments is the worst, and I hope they get caught. Not just for the sake of getting them caught, but hopefully as a deterrent to other thieves.

Second. Man, I had no idea that these guitars were going to cost that much. Suddenly I don't feel so bad, for wanting a very expensive F bass.

 

[BarfanyShart]

So if I buy one of these at a good price in two years, I know it was one of the hot ones.

 

[magyk8ball]

I think these were all sold out upon release. This theft makes them that much more unavailable.
Retail on these was huge. Way more than id pay for one, and im a huge tool and les paul fan.

 

[Last Rebel]

Not basses. But since so many of us also play guitar:

nor I...looking out for our bretheren

 

[fishdude101101]

These are limited edition guitars that were pre ordered and paid for. So they were stolen from all of the INDIVIDUALS who ordered them and waited a long time for them to be delivered..... even though they had not taken possession of them yet.

And, while we're at it, I have grown incredibly weary of this anti corporation sentiment that makes it "OK" if a large company falls victim to a crime.... because they're big enough to absorb it, or somehow deserve it. Every single company you deal with is made up of humans. Those humans have to deal with crap every day just like you do. And the PEOPLE at Sweetwater.... the "little guy" employees who work in the warehouse... are about to have to jump through all kinds of hoops with regard to security because one jack hole decided to steal.

Nobody should be stolen from. Thieves suck. Period.

I'm gonna go have my morning coffee now.

(Seriously, I hope you have a great day. I have a cold spot in my heart for thieves. I've been a victim of their worthless butts too many times, both in my personal and professional life.)

I feel exactly the same way about all of this. Sometimes people make excuses for thieves, like they had to do it to get money to survive or something, to buy food or whatever, which is a nice way of rationalizing it I guess, but I'm thinking its rarely true. For me personally if someone knocked on my door and said they needed help I'd do if I could, but steal from me and you are some of the lowest of the low.

 

[Ewo]

Grrrrr! I hate thieves.

 

[Joe Nerve]

So odd that people would target musical instruments.

They're so easily trackable and tough to sell. Even ridiculously hard steal... or well, maybe not.

A box full of laptops would sell a lot more quickly and be a lot less bulky to steal though. I guess someone saw what looked like a great opportunity to them, and went with it :/ .

My apartment was broken into about 10 years ago. They trashed the place, but only took about $35 I had out on a desk. They went through my jewelry and I was almost insulted that they didn't take any of it . I laugh now, but not then. My basses were all out on stands too, and I was concerned about the theives returning. Police Sergeant assured me that wouldn't happen. He said they want jewelry, cash, credit cards, phones, and laptops - things they could sell quickly and easily. They might be interested in TVs too, but nowadays its not worth it. And they certainly didn't want to run around the streets with guitars. Had I had them in cases as opposed to on stands, it might have been a different story.

 

[AudioTaper]

So odd that people would target musical instruments.

They're so easily trackable and tough to sell. Even ridiculously hard steal... or well, maybe not.

A box full of laptops would sell a lot more quickly and be a lot less bulky to steal though. I guess someone saw what looked like a great opportunity to them, and went with it :/ .

My apartment was broken into about 10 years ago. They trashed the place, but only took about $35 I had out on a desk. They went through my jewelry and I was almost insulted that they didn't take any of it . I laugh now, but not then. My basses were all out on stands too, and I was concerned about the theives returning. Police Sergeant assured me that wouldn't happen. He said they want jewelry, cash, credit cards, phones, and laptops - things they could sell quickly and easily. They might be interested in TVs too, but nowadays its not worth it. And they certainly didn't want to run around the streets with guitars. Had I had them in cases as opposed to on stands, it might have been a different story.

Similar story here. In 2005, someone broke in while I was at work and stole a camera, camcorder, the little bit of cash I had, and a cheap watch. They walked right past 2 basses in hardshell cases that were sitting in the living room. Police said they passed on them because they were too big and more noticeable to people on the street.

The situation was bad, but at least I still have those basses.

 

[johnson79]

Sounds like someone picked off a trailer at a truck stop. Too bad it was guitars and not manure...

 

[Shirobon]

Well that's an inside job if I ever saw one. The thieves obviously knew what was in that truck, where and when it would stop.

I know I shouldn't be throwing accusations out in the wild, but to pull out a heist like that easily, you'd need the driver of the truck to be in on it. Giving intel about the whereabouts of the truck. Loading that specific pallet at the back of the trailer.
It's way too fishy. And now that the serials are public (counterfeiters are gonna love that), it will be very hard for them to sell them off in the US, so they're pretty much guaranteed to head overseas.

Just my $0.02, though.

 

[nilorius]

That's about $94,000 (retail).

A half.

 

[74hc]

Anybody else wonder why Sweetwater obfuscated their post a bit? What the heck is a travel center, and are those really sold to fans as implied?

Or is it just stolen out of a shipper's warehouse or in transit to Sweetwater for retail sales? Or stolen while in Sweetwater's possession like one of their remote warehouses?

I think it's the later, and some employee(s) is/are going to feel some unemployment and prosecution love. But hey, they had some redeeming quality in that they left the basses alone.

 

[nilorius]

Well that's an inside job if I ever saw one. The thieves obviously knew what was in that truck, where and when it would stop.

I know I shouldn't be throwing accusations out in the wild, but to pull out a heist like that easily, you'd need the driver of the truck to be in on it. Giving intel about the whereabouts of the truck. Loading that specific pallet at the back of the trailer.
It's way too fishy. And now that the serials are public (counterfeiters are gonna love that), it will be very hard for them to sell them off in the US, so they're pretty much guaranteed to head overseas.

Just my $0.02, though.

Maybe overseas their price will go up.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Blecchhh. I understand a hungry guy stealing a piece of fruit... but something like this? It's utterly shoddy thinking to fall back to "good insurance" as a validation.

I'd go a lot further. But this is a friendly place

95k insurance claim, refunds to all customers. Sweetwater's insurance premiums increase.
They are a for profit business , who will ACTUALLY HAVE TO PAY?
future customers. You and I
Major theft indeed.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Okay, where were all of you on the day in question?

Hey, it's getting colder. Gibson makes the best firewood.

At least DHGate will have real product to sell now.

 

[tubedude]

Whew, thank God it wasn't Stratocasters!
No really, it's a shame, those sunburst cases were sweet.