I had 5 of my Guitars Stolen - What do I need to do Next?

[Sermo Lupi]

In the process of moving out of my old place, I realized 5 of my guitars were taken. I know this because I went in one day, saw they were there, and when I came back they were gone. I know who stole them, the "Landlord" (Not really the landlord, he was just sub leasing the house to me and my friends.) However, he is denying everything and pointing fingers at everyone else. Why he took them is simple - he is a scumbag and will try to make a buck off anything.

The issue I see is he does not own the property, so he has no right to take anything there and I was in the process of moving out.


I am talking to the County Police, and contacting a lawyer as well. I have also posted on the local Richmond VA Classifieds on Facebook about this issue and talked to some musician friends. The good news is I am getting some support and people in the community are looking out, but that's about it.

Keep following up with the police and be insistent that you know who stole the guitars. Obviously do much of your own due diligence as possible.

First, very sorry for the situation. However, many here are offering the most stale of advice as if contacting the police will launch some sort of investigation with cops and detectives rolling to the scene same day. L. O. L. Welcome to 2024.

Unless you're living in Mayberry NC, that's not happening. In Richmond, you will be lucky if anyone even answers the phone. No cops are showing up, no detective is taking a report, and nobody at the police station is going to do a damned thing for you. Sorry if some get butthurt over that reality, but that's on you because it is simply the stark reality of today in any large metro area (and quite honestly just about anywhere).

Brother, you are on your own. Looks like you have some good friends willing to go to bat for you.....which is why the answer is, unfortunately, to gather as many GOOD friends and brothers as you can, set this clown up for a buy, and ambush him with extreme prejudice. No violence.....yet.....just an implied presence in numbers that he's not going home on 2 feet if its not resolved that minute.

He is a coward. Facing a dozen people piling out of 3-4 cars once the buyer and guitar are in the same space, taking his phone and "asking him nicely" to choose between returning everything, right now, or going for a black and blue swim in the sewage treatement pools will encourage him to do the right thing.

You can call the cops, but you will be filling out the report in full, no cop is showing up,and nobody is getting assigned the case to work and resolve. Meanwhile, this window licker will be selling your axes.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I would bet plenty on cops doing absolutely nothing, and I mean ZERO, to help you. You can thank your local BLM chapter and "leadership" you pay taxes to for caving to the "defund the police" bulls**t circa 2020. Unless its a gunshot, no cops are coming to save the day, today or any other day. Its a placebo at best.

Ask me how I know.....clue: 30 year resident of Portland OR until a few years back. Sold my home and GTFO. Richmond is no different, an idealogical hell hole, and if you don't hurry up with a plan, your valuables will be long gone.

I wish you all the best, brother, and my words were not to start any debates (and I wont, either), its my opinion based on real life, and is solely to point out an option (one that is based in reality) that doesn't seem to have been represented fully here. I seriously hope you get your gear back, but bringing in the police to do anything at all is tantamount to giving the scumbag thief a full pass and a massive head start.

Best of luck to you OP in whatever means you choose to get this sorted. Your friend started the right ball rolling, just be sure you show overwhelming physical support and numbers when meeting time comes. Assure him no harm will come if he returns it all, now.

Speak for yourself. I had a guitar stolen once that went missing for nearly 5 years. The police went above and beyond to help me recover it when it popped back up on the market, which included assigning an undercover officer to my case and arranging a sting operation at the place where I arranged to 'buy' the guitar back (placed in quotes because it was a setup--only the police were there). It turned out the guy trying to sell it back to me knew it was stolen, so he was arrested and interrogated as well.

OP, do not listen to this advice. Please continue to talk to the police in addition to any other steps you take.

 

[ZXIIIT]

I'm hoping you get your guitars back and the thief gets arrested.

I unknowingly purchased a stolen RG321 on Craigslist a few years ago, priced at $75. When I met up with the guy, he was in a beat-up car with 3 other guys, they opened the passenger door and showed me the guitar, I gave them the money and they asked if I wanted a case of pedals for $50. I said no and they left, never turning off the car.

I got home, cleaned the guitar up, used it for a few weeks, and listed it a bit later. I instantly got an email asking if they could buy it right now, I met up with the buyer and 2 guys came up to me and handed me a police report showing the serial of the guitar I was selling as stolen.

I felt so bad and gutted that I never even considered this to be the reason why it was so cheap. They asked if I was the one who stole it and demanded proof of me buying it, so I showed them the messages between me and the seller, as well as where we met, what time, what they drove, and what he looked like. I also said I would help identify the thief and anything else to get their stuff back.

They said thank you and gave me the asking price for the guitar, I refused and said "No, this is your guitar" but they insisted since this was the first piece they tracked down and they wouldn't be pressing charges against me, as with the info I gave them, they knew exactly who it was.

After that, I was way more cautious about getting stuff off Craigslist, just never know.

Good luck!

 

[budda]

Things to add:

If buying a used item for a “steal of a deal” make sure it isnt financed somewhere.

 

[STRHelvete]

First, very sorry for the situation. However, many here are offering the most stale of advice as if contacting the police will launch some sort of investigation with cops and detectives rolling to the scene same day. L. O. L. Welcome to 2024.

Unless you're living in Mayberry NC, that's not happening. In Richmond, you will be lucky if anyone even answers the phone. No cops are showing up, no detective is taking a report, and nobody at the police station is going to do a damned thing for you. Sorry if some get butthurt over that reality, but that's on you because it is simply the stark reality of today in any large metro area (and quite honestly just about anywhere).

Brother, you are on your own. Looks like you have some good friends willing to go to bat for you.....which is why the answer is, unfortunately, to gather as many GOOD friends and brothers as you can, set this clown up for a buy, and ambush him with extreme prejudice. No violence.....yet.....just an implied presence in numbers that he's not going home on 2 feet if its not resolved that minute.

He is a coward. Facing a dozen people piling out of 3-4 cars once the buyer and guitar are in the same space, taking his phone and "asking him nicely" to choose between returning everything, right now, or going for a black and blue swim in the sewage treatement pools will encourage him to do the right thing.

You can call the cops, but you will be filling out the report in full, no cop is showing up,and nobody is getting assigned the case to work and resolve. Meanwhile, this window licker will be selling your axes.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I would bet plenty on cops doing absolutely nothing, and I mean ZERO, to help you. You can thank your local BLM chapter and "leadership" you pay taxes to for caving to the "defund the police" bulls**t circa 2020. Unless its a gunshot, no cops are coming to save the day, today or any other day. Its a placebo at best.

Ask me how I know.....clue: 30 year resident of Portland OR until a few years back. Sold my home and GTFO. Richmond is no different, an idealogical hell hole, and if you don't hurry up with a plan, your valuables will be long gone.

I wish you all the best, brother, and my words were not to start any debates (and I wont, either), its my opinion based on real life, and is solely to point out an option (one that is based in reality) that doesn't seem to have been represented fully here. I seriously hope you get your gear back, but bringing in the police to do anything at all is tantamount to giving the scumbag thief a full pass and a massive head start.

Best of luck to you OP in whatever means you choose to get this sorted. Your friend started the right ball rolling, just be sure you show overwhelming physical support and numbers when meeting time comes. Assure him no harm will come if he returns it all, now.

So your advice is that the police are useless but some childish Marvel Heroes Netflix episode nonsense, that would surely get you on the wrong side of the police instead of the thief, is what should be done instead....


OP, please avoid this "advice" as this poster apparently believes he's a member of the A-Team or something. The last thing you need is for something like this to go wrong and someone gets hurt/killed and you end up with no guitars or freedom because you'll be in jail.

 

[hfam]

Keep following up with the police and be insistent that you know who stole the guitars. Obviously do much of your own due diligence as possible.



Speak for yourself. I had a guitar stolen once that went missing for nearly 5 years. The police went above and beyond to help me recover it when it popped back up on the market, which included assigning an undercover officer to my case and arranging a sting operation at the place where I arranged to 'buy' the guitar back (placed in quotes because it was a setup--only the police were there). It turned out the guy trying to sell it back to me knew it was stolen, so he was arrested and interrogated as well.

OP, do not listen to this advice. Please continue to talk to the police in addition to any other steps you take.

I'm clearly speaking for myself, but you??! You're not even in the US, you're in UK where in 2024 they send an emergency vanload of "hard-ass bobbies" to jail some poor kid who made someone feel bad with a "bad name" or made an "offensive comment" online. OP has had 5 guitars stolen. They are in clear and immediate danger of being sold, never to be seen again by OP.

You know nothing about OPs situation, the choices he faces, what living in an American metro today is, or to what level the current useless state of policing has deteriorated to here in the US.

Try that fairy tale in the USA, in Richmond VA in 2024 and see what happens. They wont even pick up the phone, and if they do you'd be laughed at, told to fill out your own police report online, and reassured through giggles that the chance of successfully getting your case resolved and property returned is exactly 0%. The COPS will tell you this flat out. Its not my opinion, its my EXPERIENCE and that of many, many others.

No, nobody at the Richmond PD is coming to help, setup a sting, assign a personal undercover detective team, take a report, or gives a s**t about OP and his loss, and sure wont lift a finger to help him to retrieve his property. That's a promise. OP is on his own. "Act now, or lose your shit for good." is the best advice he's been given if he wants to get his property back. Call the cops when you've got 15 friends surrounding the perp and your property, but letting them handle it, they'll be the first to tell you your guitars are already gone.

Heres the bottom line: We will all find out as the situation unravels and time takes its toll. I'd love to hear how the Richmond PD jumped in, got the baddie and everything was returned to OP safe and sound. Seriously, that'd be awesome. However, I live in the USA. I've lived in idealogical metros where the cops have abdicated their duties completely, under orders from the mayor, who's ordered the chief of police to do nothing, and the chief emsures his PD willingly oblidges. I've watched as city councils have flown the bird to the taxpaying citizens and defunded the police departments to the point of complete ineffectiveness, emboldening criminals to do whatever they like, knowing that even if by some miracle they're caught, they are let out with no bail and all charges are dropped. En masse. The police have had their hands tied behind their backs both financially and legally. Crime pays in the USA now, ask any criminal thief scumbag.

So yeah, I AM speaking for myself. We will all see exactly whtlat the police do or don't do, and we will see if/when/how OP makes out and what he does. In the meantime, you have a right to your opinion, regardless of your entirely irrelevant anecdote or your complete lack of knowledge regarding the circumstances at hand in another country than your own.

 

[hfam]

So your advice is that the police are useless but some childish Marvel Heroes Netflix episode nonsense, that would surely get you on the wrong side of the police instead of the thief, is what should be done instead....


OP, please avoid this "advice" as this poster apparently believes he's a member of the A-Team or something. The last thing you need is for something like this to go wrong and someone gets hurt/killed and you end up with no guitars or freedom because you'll be in jail.

The White Knight kid appears.....

 

[Briz]

In my personal experience, "possession is 9/10ths of the law," rings true in the states which I've lived. I had a guitar stolen many years ago. I couldn't prove that the guitar was mine, so the thief was allowed to keep the guitar. The only pictures I had were random pictures people took at our shows.

The second time around, I was duped. I bought a guitar with cash from a guy that is best described as "a friend of a friend of a friend." A few weeks after I purchased the guitar, the guy showed up at my door with the police. He had the original receipt and I couldn't prove that I purchased the guitar. He had a pretty bad drug problem and ended up pawning the guitar that day, according to friends.

I hope the OP gets his guitars back, but it really does depend on local law enforcement filing the report, and then it's likely to be resolved in civil court or small claims court. Police usually don't make the decision when it's not clear cut theft - they defer to the court. One can only hope for justice.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

I'm clearly speaking for myself, but you??! You're not even in the US, you're in UK where in 2024 they send an emergency vanload of "hard-ass bobbies" to jail some poor kid who made someone feel bad with a "bad name" or made an "offensive comment" online. OP has had 5 guitars stolen. They are in clear and immediate danger of being sold, never to be seen again by OP.

You know nothing about OPs situation, the choices he faces, what living in an American metro today is, or to what level the current useless state of policing has deteriorated to here in the US.

Try that fairy tale in the USA, in Richmond VA in 2024 and see what happens. They wont even pick up the phone, and if they do you'd be laughed at, told to fill out your own police report online, and reassured through giggles that the chance of successfully getting your case resolved and property returned is exactly 0%. The COPS will tell you this flat out. Its not my opinion, its my EXPERIENCE and that of many, many others.

No, nobody at the Richmond PD is coming to help, setup a sting, assign a personal undercover detective team, take a report, or gives a s**t about OP and his loss, and sure wont lift a finger to help him to retrieve his property. That's a promise. OP is on his own. "Act now, or lose your shit for good." is the best advice he's been given if he wants to get his property back. Call the cops when you've got 15 friends surrounding the perp and your property, but letting them handle it, they'll be the first to tell you your guitars are already gone.

Heres the bottom line: We will all find out as the situation unravels and time takes its toll. I'd love to hear how the Richmond PD jumped in, got the baddie and everything was returned to OP safe and sound. Seriously, that'd be awesome. However, I live in the USA. I've lived in idealogical metros where the cops have abdicated their duties completely, under orders from the mayor, who's ordered the chief of police to do nothing, and the chief emsures his PD willingly oblidges. I've watched as city councils have flown the bird to the taxpaying citizens and defunded the police departments to the point of complete ineffectiveness, emboldening criminals to do whatever they like, knowing that even if by some miracle they're caught, they are let out with no bail and all charges are dropped. En masse. The police have had their hands tied behind their backs both financially and legally. Crime pays in the USA now, ask any criminal thief scumbag.

So yeah, I AM speaking for myself. We will all see exactly whtlat the police do or don't do, and we will see if/when/how OP makes out and what he does. In the meantime, you have a right to your opinion, regardless of your entirely irrelevant anecdote or your complete lack of knowledge regarding the circumstances at hand in another country than your own.

I am not from the UK, nor was I living in the UK when this happened, but please go off about those 'hard-ass bobbies' so I can laugh some more

I not sure what all this rambling is about. A crime happened. OP knows who committed it. You get the police involved, end of story.

 

[CleansingCarnage]

I'm clearly speaking for myself, but you??! You're not even in the US, you're in UK where in 2024 they send an emergency vanload of "hard-ass bobbies" to jail some poor kid who made someone feel bad with a "bad name" or made an "offensive comment" online. OP has had 5 guitars stolen. They are in clear and immediate danger of being sold, never to be seen again by OP.

You know nothing about OPs situation, the choices he faces, what living in an American metro today is, or to what level the current useless state of policing has deteriorated to here in the US.

Try that fairy tale in the USA, in Richmond VA in 2024 and see what happens. They wont even pick up the phone, and if they do you'd be laughed at, told to fill out your own police report online, and reassured through giggles that the chance of successfully getting your case resolved and property returned is exactly 0%. The COPS will tell you this flat out. Its not my opinion, its my EXPERIENCE and that of many, many others.

No, nobody at the Richmond PD is coming to help, setup a sting, assign a personal undercover detective team, take a report, or gives a s**t about OP and his loss, and sure wont lift a finger to help him to retrieve his property. That's a promise. OP is on his own. "Act now, or lose your shit for good." is the best advice he's been given if he wants to get his property back. Call the cops when you've got 15 friends surrounding the perp and your property, but letting them handle it, they'll be the first to tell you your guitars are already gone.

Heres the bottom line: We will all find out as the situation unravels and time takes its toll. I'd love to hear how the Richmond PD jumped in, got the baddie and everything was returned to OP safe and sound. Seriously, that'd be awesome. However, I live in the USA. I've lived in idealogical metros where the cops have abdicated their duties completely, under orders from the mayor, who's ordered the chief of police to do nothing, and the chief emsures his PD willingly oblidges. I've watched as city councils have flown the bird to the taxpaying citizens and defunded the police departments to the point of complete ineffectiveness, emboldening criminals to do whatever they like, knowing that even if by some miracle they're caught, they are let out with no bail and all charges are dropped. En masse. The police have had their hands tied behind their backs both financially and legally. Crime pays in the USA now, ask any criminal thief scumbag.

So yeah, I AM speaking for myself. We will all see exactly whtlat the police do or don't do, and we will see if/when/how OP makes out and what he does. In the meantime, you have a right to your opinion, regardless of your entirely irrelevant anecdote or your complete lack of knowledge regarding the circumstances at hand in another country than your own.

You seem hell bent on making this a political issue, which shows just how clearly you're thinking about the possibility of rounding up a literal vigilante posse.

Assuming everything you're saying is true and the police won't respond to stolen guitars, you're on your own and the only recourse you have is to take the law into your own hands and solve things through a show of force (that's exactly what you're talking about whether you want to backpedal when confronted with it or not), then OP should either just kiss the guitars goodbye, or prepare to make a very foolish series of decisions in order to get them back. Because the police will respond to vigilante lynch mobs. It's the fastest, most conspicuous way to go from victim to perpetrator.

It also would give the actual perpetrator plenty of reasonable justification for feeling in imminent threat of bodily harm. How would you react if a dozen people surrounded you threateningly in a clear confrontation and implied you weren't leaving of your own free will? I know how I would.

What if he obstinately denies any wrongdoing or knowledge of the situation, flat out lies, or laughs in your face? What if he calls the police? What if he gets in his car and starts to drive away? Are your buddies going to stand in the way of a moving vehicle? Are they aware of how many charges it might entail to gather in an organized mob and harass, detain and potentially assault someone in a premeditated fashion? If they are aware, why are they friends with someone who wants to put them in that kind of a situation over a few worldly possessions, the value of which wouldn't even come close to covering legal or medical fees for any one of them if or when things happened to go sideways?

You've clearly never dealt with the reality of this kind of situation, sans police, yourself, and you're operating on pure, ideologically driven fantasy. I doubt you have 15 friends you could gather into a mob to jump someone in order to recover your stolen property, and if you do, then it's unfortunate for you that you have 15 friends who are just as foolish as you are.

 

[hfam]

Y

I am not from the UK, nor was I living in the UK when this happened, but please go off about those 'hard-ass bobbies' so I can laugh some more

I not sure what all this rambling is about. A crime happened. OP knows who committed it. You get the police involved, end of story.

You seem.....confused. Laugh it up.

 

[MFB]

hfam is out here thinking he's the good guy with a gun, when in reality he's the retired security guard who shoots a kid returning a BB gun

 

[Sermo Lupi]

Y

You seem.....confused. Laugh it up.

View attachment 146510

Oh, I'm laughing it up all right. What do you think you're showing me, my SSO birth certificate? What are your opinions on tan suits?

 

[hfam]

Oh, I'm laughing it up all right. What do you think you're showing me, my SSO birth certificate? What are your opinions on tan suits?

im sure you are! All those words just look like scribbles to you, butterflies...not knowing where you live, putting UK as where you're from for no reason....its all laughter when your simple in UK I'm sure.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

im sure you are! All those words just look like scribbles to you, butterflies...not knowing where you live, putting UK as where you're from for no reason....its all laughter when your simple in UK I'm sure.

Man, my own birther. Your stupidity honestly kinda made my day

 

[hfam]

Man, my own birther. Your stupidity honestly kinda made my day

For a simple gal from the UK you sure don't speak English very well.

 

[STRHelvete]

You seem hell bent on making this a political issue, which shows just how clearly you're thinking about the possibility of rounding up a literal vigilante posse.

Assuming everything you're saying is true and the police won't respond to stolen guitars, you're on your own and the only recourse you have is to take the law into your own hands and solve things through a show of force (that's exactly what you're talking about whether you want to backpedal when confronted with it or not), then OP should either just kiss the guitars goodbye, or prepare to make a very foolish series of decisions in order to get them back. Because the police will respond to vigilante lynch mobs. It's the fastest, most conspicuous way to go from victim to perpetrator.

It also would give the actual perpetrator plenty of reasonable justification for feeling in imminent threat of bodily harm. How would you react if a dozen people surrounded you threateningly in a clear confrontation and implied you weren't leaving of your own free will? I know how I would.

What if he obstinately denies any wrongdoing or knowledge of the situation, flat out lies, or laughs in your face? What if he calls the police? What if he gets in his car and starts to drive away? Are your buddies going to stand in the way of a moving vehicle? Are they aware of how many charges it might entail to gather in an organized mob and harass, detain and potentially assault someone in a premeditated fashion? If they are aware, why are they friends with someone who wants to put them in that kind of a situation over a few worldly possessions, the value of which wouldn't even come close to covering legal or medical fees for any one of them if or when things happened to go sideways?

You've clearly never dealt with the reality of this kind of situation, sans police, yourself, and you're operating on pure, ideologically driven fantasy. I doubt you have 15 friends you could gather into a mob to jump someone in order to recover your stolen property, and if you do, then it's unfortunate for you that you have 15 friends who are just as foolish as you are.

He's apparently from Virginia..you'll have to excuse him. Some of the southern states are the relatives the rest of America like to lock in the attic when company comes to visit.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

For a simple gal from the UK you sure don't speak English very well.

Whatever fits your fantasy of me and those 'hard-ass bobbies'. Just remember that reality is often disappointing!

I'm going to stop feeding the troll now, but if you want to speed run a ban, you do you.

 

[bmtf]

too

Physical revenge is limited. Have you considered

Spoiler

locking him up in a room for 15 years, while preparing an elaborate charade whereby he unknowingly begins a romantic relationship with his own daughter upon his release?

progressive

 

[Thesius]

Put 7up in his air humidifier so his whole house gets sticky as fuck

 

[jaxadam]

This thread is lit!