Help! My instrument got stolen!
What to do if the worst happens
I have been working in the music retail industry (repairs) for over 30 years. Stretching before that I was a performing musician and teacher, and before that I grew up with lessons from my dad who was also an active performing musician and teacher. I say this not to toot any horns, but to illustrate that I know the environments and situations musicians and their instruments operate in and frequent. You can do everything “right” and sometimes the worst can happen anyway.
There are basic behaviors and habits I had drilled into me from a young age that not everyone considers. First, make sure you have some sort of insurance coverage on your instrument. If you don’t have the disposable cash on hand to go out and buy another one right now, get insurance. Something that goes along with or is required for insurance is to document the serial numbers. Having pictures of your instruments is also a good idea. In this age of AI photo manipulation, please keep your documentary pictures of your instruments OFF social media. If you ask, sometimes your technician may be willing to do the pictures when it is in for service. Then you have documentary pictures in 2 places.
Another behavior that is important to establish in a musician’s routine is to not leave your instrument in your car. If you are going out for dinner or drinks after a performance or rehearsal, your instrument goes in with you. Smash and grab robberies on cars literally take seconds to pull off.
If you are carrying your instrument through a busy or crowded area, do not set it down and lose contact with it. Where you go, it goes. If you are standing in line for something and need to set it down, put it between your feet or rest one foot on top of it. If you have a smaller instrument, avoid having it loosely sitting in the top of a tote back or other open luggage. At least tie, loop, or clip it to something so it can’t just be lifted out of the bag when you stop to tie your shoe.
Thieves are opportunists above anything else and some are quite bold about it. I used to enjoy watching the Ghost Hunters television show many years ago and there was one episode where they were investigating a building in a large city. The building was a museum of some sort and had restricted hours so they were assembling all their gear outside on the sidewalk waiting to be let in. They had a large pile of black pelican cases for the cameras and whatnot and had their camera crews there filming. A man walked by and casually picked up a large case that was on the edge of the pile without breaking his stride, continuing on at the same pace without looking around. He was several steps away before the crew shook off the shock of disbelief and gave chase.
(Episode linked here and it happens around the 24:00 mark)
It can happen fast, but even if following all of the proper precautions and being aware of your surroundings, instruments can get stolen. Unfortunately, there can be violence and threats involved, such as being mugged. Your house or business could be broken into when you are not around. I have a client whose contrabassoon was stolen from a locked locker in a restricted and secure area of the concert hall where she worked. It was found and returned to her 6 years after it was stolen, a happy ending which is unusual.
Instruments getting stolen is thankfully a rare occurrence, but if it happens to you, what do you do?
Call the police. Get the police involved as soon as you can. Before you ask for a plea for assistance on your instagram page (which is farcically insufficient) get the professionals involved. You will need a police report number and details to file an insurance claim. (You do have insurance, right?)
While waiting for police to arrive write down any facts you can: what is the instrument, was the case taken too, identifying features, how/when it was taken, etc. The police will use the information they need so do not make a judgement of “oh that’s not important”. Let the professionals make that determination.
When you circulate appeals for help around your friends and community, make sure you provide the police department phone number, incident report number, and officer or detective handling the case. This is important because if someone spots your stolen instrument in a pawn shop, you want them to call the police directly so they can sort it out quickly. You don’t want to be in the middle and wasting time because someone left you a voicemail you missed while in the shower.
Maintain optimism, but accept the reality that the instrument may be gone. Let the police do what they do. It will take time. Also prepare yourself for the fact that many stolen instruments that are recovered are damaged severely. The thief can’t move it so they chuck it in the nearest dumpster or out the window of their car.
Things not to do
Do not try to just handle it on your own. Even if you know who stole it, get the police involved. It is safer all around.
If you spot an instrument you think is stolen being sold online or in a shop, don’t jump to the direct “hey! that’s stolen!” position. What will that accomplish? What authority do you have other than hoping to shame the person into seeing the error of their ways and returning it? Yeah. Like that’s gonna happen. 99.9% of the time one of two things will happen, they will disappear never to be seen again and/or they will get confrontational or aggressive with violence being a very real possibility. Think it through.
Instead, aid in the instrument’s recovery by pretending to be an interested buyer. Gather information on the instrument and the seller and relay that to the police. If you have the incident report details, do not contact the owner until after you have contacted the police. You are wasting time to do otherwise and some details may be lost or distorted if you only tell the owner.If you see a stolen instrument on ebay or in a shop, do not buy it to “save it”. You will not get your money back and you may complicate matters.
If you have an instrument stolen, make a successful insurance claim to have it replaced, and the instrument is found and returned (even years later), you DO NOT get to enjoy a back up instrument. That recovered instrument is often now considered the property of the insurance company. To quietly not notify them and keep it is what they call insurance fraud, and if you were to think insurance companies do not have teams of lawyers working on such situations every day, you would be gravely mistaken.
At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop for professional musicians in the National Capital Region. Visit the JWS website for more information.