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| Friday, September 05, 2008 |
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Lost & Found: Sam's Bass :(
By Orange Peel Moses @ 4:48 PM :: 169 Views ::
0 Comments :: Image Mag Editorial
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wordplay: Samantha Donen
The last forty-eight hours have been the worst of my life. And with each passing minute, I feel the most important thing in my life slipping further and further away from me.
My last memory of my bass guitar, that I have owned and cherished for 16 years, plays like a maddening recall in my mind. I was loading out from a show on Saturday, August 30th, in Denver, Colorado. I placed her for a moment safely against a wall in her soft black leather case. Then, I turned my back and finished loading my bass rig out of my car. How can she be gone? Where can she be? And is someone sitting on her neck or damaging her in any other way that I am unable to stop right now?
I filed a police report within an hour of discovering my bass gone. They asked me if I had a serial number for my bass. I never wrote it down because my bass has no monetary value in the music market and I keep such a careful watch on her that I never fathomed someone would steal her. She’s a 4-string Peavey furry bass that I bought in 1990, learned to play bass on, and played live with in every single band and style of music I have ever explored as a bassist. My ownership and love of this bass is all sentimental and I have never owned another bass guitar. By going through pictures taken of me live, I was able to find my serial number. The Denver Police and I used a magnifying glass to zoom in on the neck of my bass from a picture taken from behind at a show.
I called the most well known music pawn shop in Denver, Wedgles Music on Broadway, for advice on the matter. A courteous staff member explained to me that a pawn shop will not buy stolen equipment that has been reported to the police. They will try to seize the equipment when someone tries to sell it to them and notify the police. He further explained that to sell equipment at a pawn shop, a seller needs to provide photo identification and a thief is not likely to want to provide that info. So, chances are my bass is on the streets and someone is trying to sell it that way. And by streets, that means eBay, Craig's List, and other online buying and selling sites to music shops that are not required by law to take photo identification when they purchase used music equipment.
Panic. Fear. The feeling that a knife is slicing my heart every time I think about her whereabouts right now. Anxiety. Desperation. This feeling that if I stop spreading the word and sending her picture to everyone that she will just disappear forever.
My mind flashes to a time I once refused to get on a plane from Amsterdam back to the States because they wouldn’t let me store my bass in the first class closet and the airline insisted to put her in cargo with the rest of the luggage. I knew by not getting on that plane that I would be stranded, but my safety was secondary to me than swallowing the fact that my bass would be damaged beyond repair if stored in cargo. Crying hysterically and alone at the gate, I was preparing for the plane to take off without me. Then, the pilot came out to talk to me and said,” Ma’am, I am sorry for your distress but I thought your bass was a cello and did not think it would fit on the plane. If you would just get on the plane, we have an extra seat in first class for your bass and you can visit it once we are airborne to make sure it is safe.” Thus, my baby flew first class home. That’s love. You can’t put a price tag on that.
Well, thief or finder, if you want money for my bass, just find me. You are not likely to get more money anywhere or from anyone other than me. My bass is unique, there is not another one like it out there. I painted it with lavender nail polish when I was in high school and its rough exterior took 16 years of playing her to look like that. The back of the bass has scratches from belt buckles, and every dink, sticker, and engraving is the history of my life. Please return her to me...I beg you… I am thoroughly lost without her. Contact findmybass@gmail.com if you know anything about her whereabouts. I will offer a large cash reward for her return and am not looking to go into any further investigations than having her safely returned to me. Please no solicitations or malicious responses.
Reporting your musical equipment stolen to your local police department is the first most necessary step to take when your equipment is stolen. If you take pictures of your gear now and write down the serial number, it makes the process faster for the police to notify pawnshops nationwide to keep an eye out for it. Unfortunately, this process also makes it possible for your stolen instrument to go missing forever. The Denver Police informed me to make sure I set up a temporary phone number or email address for contact, if I wanted to put flyers up around Denver or online. This is to protect oneself from malicious behavior or further theft. They further informed that if someone notified me that they had my bass, to meet them somewhere safe like a local police station, fire station, shopping mall, or anywhere public. Do not ever agree to meet someone at your home or give out any information like that when looking for your stolen equipment. The Denver Police further suggested that if a thief knows where the crime occurred, they will try to come back again to steal more.
FindMyBass@gmail.com
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