Anydbody here from Europe just buy a Desert Gold JP7 on ebay?

[mesavox]

I can't give a lot of details, but my stolen guitars have been found. The Ibanez JPM P4 is in evidence, and unfortunately the JP7 left the country through a couple of transactions.

I'm hoping by some miracle I might stumble on whoever bought it and see if we can't start a chain of refunds and get a guitar home where it belongs.

Since that guitar replaced the previously stolen JP7, I have been without that guitar essentially for 3 years, with a month in between of having the new one.

The story of how these got stolen is exactly what I thought... employees of the amusement park swiped them back stage while we were loading.

If a local news station ever asks you to play a summer concert series at a local amusement park... don't think the exposure is worth it... RUN for your lives. lol

 

[the24thfret]

Wow, nice sleuthing work. I hope you can figure out those last links in the chain and get the guitars back where they should be. I remember a friend of mine in college had a '02 JP stolen from him at college -- my guess was by a university-hired cleaning crew! -- which I tracked down by accident to a salesman at a guitar/music shop about 20miles away. He apparently bought the guitar one day from a guy who came in looking to sell to the store. Not nearly as long a chain of events as your story, but I can sympathize a bit with you. Best of luck.

 

[kissmyaxe]

I was just thinking about your horrid story while driving not to long ago, I really hope you can at least make the theifs take some responsibilty if nothing else

 

[Spudmurphy]

Sorry - can't help you with this.

An Axis was stolen from a shop in Cardiff. Was at a guitar repair workshop and i saw it - the rest is history. Nice when stolen guitars find their way back. May thieves burn in hell !!

 

[John C]

mesavox - if the details in the post your friend posted on The Gear Page (his TGP handle is lespaulreedsmith) are true, you NEED to post all that detail about this mess here. That posting details a very serious breech of store policy that prevented your JP7 from being recovered.

And yes I am aware of the retailer involved - it still needs to be told here where the powers that be can see it.

 

[mesavox]

Wow.. I've been away from the computer today... but...

the reason I didn't post details just yet is, there is still enough stuff pending that I don't know that the retailer isn't going to make good on it. I haven't read the post on the gear page yet, but from what I heard, I think I didn't make a couple things clear. I don't know for sure if after the guitar was sold on ebay that the buyer was contacted. I just got that vibe from talking to the officer when he was so adamant about it now being gone for good.

At this point, the retailer in question is still up in the air about what I can expect. I suspect that the fact that once that guitar was sold by those who stole it everyone since then has doubled their money on it... well, I can't see how I don't have some sort of solid ground to expect some restitution out of all of this.

To be honest... my first request when it comes to it will be... lets see, 3 some odd years, 2 guitars, a simple bit of following proceedure preventing my current situation... how about a blackburst BFR quilt 7 string to make up for all that doubling of money everyone got but me. lol

I'm basically just not assuming yet that they'll leave me hanging on this. I'll give everyone a chance to do what's right. If that doesn't happen... well, maybe I'll remind someone of a very successful "United Breaks Guitars" campaign. LOL

At the very least, I got one of them back so far, and the people who did it are in jail. I doubt they'll do very much jail time if it's a first offense, but maybe it'll get a few people's attention... and on the other front help retailers figure out that it's not good for business if people have to wonder if they need to ask for the store to wait 20 days and run the serial numbers by NCIC before they buy a used bit of gear.

 

[John C]

mesavox - fair enough; I respect your position. However, you should be aware that your friend (lespaulreedsmith) reported the retailer and the entire story on The Gear Page.

Best of luck with this situation; it's just a shame that proper procedures weren't followed - you would have gotten the JP7 back as well as the other guitar.

 

[mesavox]

yeah, I posted in that thread. I'm honestly not really sure what my best course of action is. I can see a bunch of different sides. I don't want to slam anyone who might fully intend to help me out in the end, but I also feel like someone needs to get their attention for their own good...

With that I'll just say, hey Guitar Center... tell your people to take used items to a computer in the back room, check NCIC, write down the numbers and send to the police department, and wait the mandatory 20 days you are supposed to before you turn around and sell it. That way, you'll have less of these times when people want you to reimburse them for stolen stuff you sold. Every time this happens, you lose money and sooner or later someone is going to make a kind of noise you can't easily recover from.

And... help me out and get me a new 7 string... given the fact that everyone has doubled their money since the thing has been sold... you won't even loose money if you went so far as to replace it with a BFR. After 3 years of this crap and how easily you could have brought this to a close... I think that's more than fair.

I guess we'll see what happens, but I'm not too worried because the DA is going to strongly urge them to make this right from what I hear. Turns out I guess that one of the assistant DAs is a guitar player. lol The really weird thing... he's from my county and I know people who played in a band with him. Such a small world sometimes. lol

 

[jamminjim]

Let us know how this turns out

quote "If a local news station ever asks you to play a summer concert series at a local amusement park..." end quote

Why not take your story to the same local news station, I'd bet they'd be interested adn the general public should be apprised of this type of crime.

 

[mesavox]

Let us know how this turns out

quote "If a local news station ever asks you to play a summer concert series at a local amusement park..." end quote

Why not take your story to the same local news station, I'd bet they'd be interested adn the general public should be apprised of this type of crime.

I told them of the theft. It was kind of like.. "Ill talk to the park people and see, but I don't know much else to do for you." But yea... the news stations are on my radar should it literally end up that all these people doubled their money off my guitar and I get a "we're sorry but at least you found your other guitar..." response out of all this.

 

[Dante]

bump cuz it's relevant.

 

[mesavox]

So everyone knows where things have ended up for now...

The law on holding merch for 20 days applies to jewelry. Not guitars. I don't know yet how that was found out, and I still have to hear back from the DA on what is going to happen with the people who stole the guitars, but that's where I'm at.

Guitar Center has offered about half off on a new 7 string, but it will be a while before I have any money. My hope at this point is that the 800 the thieves were paid for the 7 string will make it's way to me fairly quickly, but I'm still very confused at this point from what I heard from the PD and what is now going on so I'll just have to see.

So, that's the full story as much as I know it. Guitar Center is apparently not legally responsible in any way, but the original statement that they were was not an assumption. The police told me that they were. So, now I'm back to square one... I have to buy a guitar to replace the first one I had stolen for the second time... which means I have to buy this guitar for the third time now. Fortunately, insurance covered the first time. Hopefully some sort of legal proceedings will at least help cover it this time.

 

[John C]

Sorry to hear this is dragging out so long. Hopefully you will get a satisfactory resolution.

Also - and sorry if I'm just stirring the pot here - it seems like GC isn't stepping up. Okay, the 20-day hold law only applies to jewelry, but from everything I've read and heard tells me that GC is supposed to have a corporate-wide policy of holding used items 30 days before selling them. That obviously wasn't the case (based on the detailed account over on TGP). It's not the law, but inside a corporation "policy" is "law".

I would have expected more from them - by all rights the $800 should go back to GC and GC should obtain a new JP7 for you. Yeah, they'll eat the difference between dealer cost and the $800 returned to them, and personally if it were my employee who purchased then sold a guitar without following policy I would take the difference out of their last paycheck - and believe me it would be their last paycheck from my organization.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

Here in CT we have a 30-day hold policy as "junk dealer" where we have to issue a pawn ticket and take down information including ID for any used good, then fax it to the local PD. On day 31 the goods can be sold, provided the PD hasn't contacted us about them being stolen.

Best of luck to you Kevin!

 

[ProtoChicken]

Same thing Pete said applies here in MA. We photocopied the sellers ID, and though we would take payment on used gear less than the 30 days old, it couldn't leave the store until after that time period. We had a stolen gear report we'd have to cross reference. Though to be honest it was easy for a thief to circumvent if they had any intelligence at all.

As a side note, I sold one of the 1st 500 Dual Rectifiers made to GC to help fund my 7 string, and an employee purchased it and took it home within a week.

 

[mesavox]

Well, I spoke with the DA office... They can not really dictate any terms on restitution. They can just mention it to the judge during court. So, the judge has to order restitution. If he doesn't... I basically have to save and buy, what is essentially my own guitar back.

After we record our EP(maybe album), and get it mastered and manufactured, we should be able to start paying ourselves and not have a need to put every dime we make into the band fund. At that rate, if I just used gig money it would take about two years to save. Hopefully Guitar Center's offer for 800 on the jp7 or 1400 on the BFR jp7 will hold that long. If not, Pete, you'll prolly be getting a call in a couple years. lol If I didn't have student loans to pay off life would be much more simple that's for sure. lol

Maybe I can see if any legislatures would ever be interested in making it to where it is not ok to sell other people's stuff... of course, I don't even live in that state so I guess I'm out of luck there too.

 

[JP7Nomad]

Damn dude, I really hate to hear your situation.

If I had a ton of money, I'd buy you one in a heartbeat. Best of luck with whatever happens, it'll all turn out well in the end.

 

[mesavox]

Thanks man... It seems I'm reading so much negative stuff lately. Koogie's friend and family, Kill Hannah had a ton of gear stolen, Reb Beach had some gear stolen, a kid just killed his step dad 18 miles from here... I just keep hoping that the new year and decade brings in something new and maybe some more love in the world. I guess man has been hoping for that since the dawn of civilization.

I guess things are looking up on some fronts though. We're going to record, and we've been invited to play a showcase at SXSW in Austin this March. That is a whole lotta potential exposure, and at least one A&R person liked our stuff.

I wonder what the odds are that a major label will like us and front enough cash that I can pay my student loans off... LOL (I'll wake up in about 8 hours lol)

 

[Lax]

Just a little bump, because I happened to read your full story here and I feel very sad for you being that robbed over the years...

I feel that you are very patient too ^^
Hope you'll get back what is yours soon.

I spent all of my money, since I work, in music...
I think I could stress out a very violent way if one of my guitars or amp was missing, that's my children :s

 

[straycat113]

I really feel for you, and for it to happen twice is must really be sickening. Hope everything pans out for you.