One dumb thief,

[Les Anderson]

I have good friend who I help out now and then as a fill in for a bass & steel or acoustic when needed. Sometime through the night this past Thursday, someone broke into the joint where they were playing and had left their equipment for the next evenings gig.

My friend's Nashville amp was taken along with a few cables, mics and the bass player's guitar. Two days later, on the following Saturday night the bass player happened to attend a wedding and dance and low and behold, at the wedding dance there was the amp, his bass guitar and a few other items.

Right in the middle of the wedding gig, the cops show up, shut the band down and hauled away two of the band members.

These professional thieves didn't even have enough brains to get the equipment out of town or to wait for things to cool down. They were using it on stage, in the same town two days later.

[Walter Stettner]

They're in the jailhouse now, they're in the jailhouse now....

I am glad your friend got his stuff back!


Kind Regards, Walter

[erik]

I got a much better story:

Back in the early 90s someone smashed and grabbed a Korg 01/W keyboard at a store I used to frequent. The thief sold it on the street. The following day the holder of the now "hot" item goes to the store to have it repaired...gets arrested for possession of stolen goods, points out thief he bought it from, case closed.

[Ken Lang]

Around 1963 someone took some cymbals and a bass guitar from our bandstand. The bartender said the day janitor probably took the stuff. We called him and he said he didn't do it.

We called the cops and a detective said to tell the guy that he has committed a felony and he would not only go to jail, but would lose his right to vote forever.

We called the guy back, told him the deal, and said we'd give him 6 hrs before we put the cops on him.

Two hours later a taxi pulled up with the stuff.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

Here in L.A. there used to be a recording studio called Echo Sound. At some point they started using Tascam DA-88s as their multitrack recorder. The DA-88 has a bunch of LEDs that light up when you turn the deck on, that can be programmed to say whatever you want, so the guys at the studio programmed them to say "Echo Sound."

Well, one day the place was robbed at gun point, and one of the engineers was shot. I don't know whether or not he survived. The robbers of course took the DA-88s. They tried to hock them, but when the pawn shop owner turned them on, the LEDs said "Echo Sound" so he called the cops and the robbers were caught.

BTW The studio never recovered. They went out of business following the robbery.

Sometimes I think the Arabs have the right idea about cutting off the hands of thieves.