Newly stolen items *ALERT*

[doctorwho]

I apologize in advance for having some non-Rickenbacker items in this post, but I wanted to be thorough in this matter.

On December 7th I went to my controlled-temperature storage unit to retrieve an instrument for use. When I got to my unit, the lock had been changed, so I went to the office. After determining that they had NOT changed the lock, they said that the called me on Oct 23rd because the door went up without my having punched my PIN into the system (I never got that call or a voice mail, FWIW). We went back to the unit, they broke the lock that was on it, I raised, the door, and ... all the guitars inside were gone. Thirty-four, or so, if I include a couple not-particularly-valuable ones. The thieves got 20 Rickenbackers, but after filing the police report (which took until Friday the 9th), I went on Saturday to Guitar Center in Fountain Valley, and they had the 4000 FL BG. The next day, the manager at FV GC called and said that he thought that he had located the 4080 JG at the Orange GC, which I confirmed in person as being mine. Just today I found a possible lead for another one or two at a local pawn shop (they were closed today, so I have to go back on Tuesday to investigate further).

I have assembled the information all of the guitars and basses stolen from the unit and am posting the information here and in the Guitars section. Rather than take numerous posts to post all of the pictures and information, I have created the condensed form in the images below.

I can provide better pictures if needed, of course, and the Rickenbackers are in the Register with more pictures, too, and I have flagged them as Stolen therein.

FWIW, I was working on some of these, so they will be in need of a luthier or someone who can do some minor fixes. The two 620 MIDs had the pickups and other hardware reattached and were awaiting me to solder the pickups to the wiring harness. The 310 LH JG had a loose bridge because I needed to make the right-handed replacement into a left-handed version (it had been modded with a Tune-A-Matic). On the 4001 FG (1973, checked binding), I had removed the after-market pickup and was getting ready to dig out the wood filler prior to putting a Rickenbacker replacement pickup in the bridge position. The 331 LS needed a neck adjustment and some minor rewiring for the lights, and I have the replacement transformer here with me (it wouldn't fit in the case). The 4002 is missing a dot marker (I don't remember which fret). The Ovation Breadwinner had a problem with the pickups coming unglued from their mounting plates, so it was disassembled for that repair; IIRC, I have the original tortoise shell pick guard here with me somewhere.

If anyone comes across (or have already come across, being that the thieves had a two-month head start) any of these, please contact the Irvine Police Department at 949-724-7000, and refer to Case Number 16-18650.

[godber]

That's bad news Gary, I'll keep my eye out for you.

[admin]

Gary I am so very sorry to hear of the loss of your instruments. I hope that your heads up will allow us to see if these instruments show up for sale.

[cheyenne]

Worthless thieves.

I hope things work out. I'll keep an eye out on Reverb, Ebay..ect.

[squirebass]

I am so sorry to hear about this Gary! I'm not in your area of the country, but I've been looking at various sites, such as Reverb, ebay, craigslist and others, and will keep my eye open. Best wishes on recovery of these instruments!

[bottom4]

This is just sad. And sounds suspicious to me regarding the email and lock. Wishing they are caught and all is returned in good order.

[kennyhowes]

Oh no!!!!!

[kennyhowes]

Perhaps a silly question, but was this your entire Rick collection, or did you have some at your house?

[aceonbass]

This has all the tell tale signs of being an inside job. No other locks were broken and replaced, or units in your row broken into I'll bet. Look for a connection to the guy who said they told you about the door coming up without your combo.

[sloop_john_b]

So sorry to hear that Gary. Some of these guitars will not be difficult to spot.

[cjj]

Oh, wow! That's terrible, so sorry to hear about this. I hope you can find all of your guitars and they can gatch the guys that did this...

[rikk]

Gary, just reading this I feel like I got punched in the gut. I hope you find your guitars.

[libratune]

This has all the tell tale signs of being an inside job. No other locks were broken and replaced, or units in your row broken into I'll bet. Look for a connection to the guy who said they told you about the door coming up without your combo.

Gary, I tend to agree that there may be some inside connection going on here. I have guitars and amps in a climate controlled storage unit, too. In my facility there are security cameras to record the entrance and exit from the building. There are interior cameras as well in the hallways. I wouldn't hesitate to ask the Irvine police to interview the owners/operators of the facility to see what they have to say about all this -- the alleged call they made that you didn't receive, the breaking of the lock, the replacement with a new lock, the facts that Dane mentioned above, etc. It's hard to believe all this took place without the owners/operators making sure you knew about it. I feel very badly that you are going through this and I hope these suggestions might be of some help.

[thisismusicinc]

Hope you get them all back. Good luck!

[collin]

My god, Gary So sorry to hear about all of this mess, it's the worst nightmare for any guitar collector.

If at least one has shown up with the jack plate intact, there is a lot of hope to recover all the other guitars as well. Luckily, through the RRF and register, there is a better resource here for recovering stolen gear than most other brands. We'll all keep an eye out for these serial numbers and the rare models are bound to turn heads whenever they pop up for sale. Just terrible..

I also agree that it sounds like an inside job. Why would none of the adjacent units be opened but yours was? Hopefully retracing everybody who had any knowledge of your storage unit could lead to recovering these and prosecuting the perpetrator.