Stolen Tubas in Kansas City, Missouri

[udder cream]

Please keep an eye out for these instruments!!!!

B & S PT 606p Silver
Yamaha YFB-621

Reported by: Larry Seward
Email: seward@nbcactionnews.com" target="_blank
Last Update: 5/15 8:52 am

Kansas City - A University of Missouri-Kansas City graduate student fears his diploma may never come.

Joshua Heston is working toward a master's degree in tuba performance. But, days before his final recital, thieves broke into Heston's car and stole his prized instruments.

"I've never been this depressed in my entire life," Heston said.

He owns two custom tubas. Now that both are missing, Heston cannot practice his sheet music or get his master's degree until his instruments return.

"Since I don't have these horns, I can't play my last recital to complete my degree," Heston said. "Even though I walked, that doesn't mean I'm completely graduated or finished. My livelihood was taken from me."

Heston and his wife went dumpster diving looking for the instruments. They even searched nearby pawn shops, like J's Pawn on Brush Creek Boulevard. The owner, Louis Rivera, believes the suspect may have tried to pawn the instruments in his shop.

"I had a gentleman come in that same day and said he had some music equipment," Rivera said. "I told him I won't take the instruments. But, I never actually saw the actual equipment. So, we could assume it was possibly the same guy, but I couldn't tell you for sure."

Heston filed a police report. He even gave detectives serial numbers inscribed on the tubas' horns. But, so far, no one has seen Heston's prized instruments. It means his plans to earn a doctorate this fall and find a job in a symphony orchestra are on hold, if not in doubt.

"Quite possibly, it's just not going to work out," Heston said. "I'm just going to have to stay here for one more recital come fall. That's going to ruin everything."

Heston is offering a $2,500 reward for the return of his instruments. He even says if the thieves drop the tuba off at Heston's apartment, he'll accept the instruments with no questions asked.

Anyone with information should call the police TIPS hotline at (816) 474-TIPS. You can also make an anonymous tip online by clicking here.

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local ... 4d&rss=764

[Toobist]

im sorry

How long were you away from your car and where were you. I ALWAYS leave my tubas in my sight/touch, I otherwise leave them locked in a slide card activated room in a locked locker (where there are cameras)

To the OP:

Please disregard the above. I'm sure James didn't mean to wag a finger at Larry and rub salt on an already painful wound. I mean... there's no way ANYBODY could be that insensitive. Is there? I've had a tuba stolen before (Oh! And from a card activated room in a locked locker in a busy building with camera serveilance.) and it turned up at a local music store where the thief (and his mom of all people!) tried to sell it.

Good luck in finding the horns though. The suggestion of Craigslist is a good one.

[Jay Bertolet]

That is such a shame, you have my condolences and wishes for speedy recovery of the horns.

I've had a couple of my students get hit like this and your approach of looking at the pawn shops is a good one. I would also suggest you watch eBay very carefully. Many of these stolen instruments are moved there. One of my students caught the eBay auction for his stolen horn, contacted the authorities, and got his horn back.

Another thing for everyone to consider is the viability of "secure" locations that have video surveillance. Don't believe for one minute that cameras will keep your horns any safer. Another of my students had his horn lifted right out of his locked locker at school. Video cameras caught the act, including pictures of the perpetrator's face. Police could not pursue the criminal with information from those tapes because they claimed the resolution on the images was not good enough to make a positive ID. Ultimately, they were able to do nothing with those tapes except know how the horn was stolen.

A word to the wise: Always keep your horns at home with you when you're not out on the job. Always have a comprehensive insurance policy that covers replacement value (should be updated every 2-3 years as prices change) and make sure that policy covers any theft of the instrument in any location. At least you won't be left empty handed.

Hope you get your horns back real soon!

[eupher61]

Guys, Josh Heston didn't post this...Larry Seward (See-word) is a reporter for Channel 41 news. Re-read the OP...

Just to avoid confusion. Thanks for the OP, I'll start looking around myself.

[MartyNeilan]

Guys, Josh Heston didn't post this...Larry Seward (See-word) is a reporter for Channel 41 news.

Any relation to Steve?

[David Spies]

Having helped Brian Davis recover his euphonium through TubeNet, if you can post photos, serial numbers, detailed descriptions of the instrument (nicks, dings, scratches, worn patches), it may help others to track down the instrument as they come across forums such as Craig's List, pawn shops, rummage sales, classifieds, etc.

The more details, the better.

Good luck.

David Spies
Willson Tuba Quartet

PS: everyone--might be a good idea to take inventory of your equipment and take digital photos as well as document serial numbers--good for insurance purposes as well as recovery in an instance such as this.

[eupher61]

Guys, Josh Heston didn't post this...Larry Seward (See-word) is a reporter for Channel 41 news.

Any relation to Steve?

I doubt. The last name is pronounced differently (read the quote, that's why I specifically did the phonetics) and Larry is a black man.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Guys, Josh Heston didn't post this...Larry Seward (See-word) is a reporter for Channel 41 news. Re-read the OP...

Wrong. "udder cream" (the original poster) is Josh. He appears to have just copied-and-pasted the contents of Mr. Seward's story to save having to tell the undoubtedly painful story himself.

[eupher61]

sorry about that, udder/Josh.

I'm looking. I went to 4 pawn shops yesterday and today, nothing.

[MikeMason]

Brother by an udder mudah?

[IkeH]

Sorry to hear about the misfortune. Here's a pretty neat tool for searching Craigslist everywhere at once. You enter the subject in the given window and then select each city (listed by state) you want to search. A little tedious, but easier than doing it from the original home page.

http://search.restrainingbolt.com/" target="_blank

Ike

[udder cream]

I guess no news is good news.....

I haven't heard anything.......

I'm not giving up either...........

On the upside my insurance company is going to cut a check very soon.......

I really hope these horns turn up.........

[MaryAnn]

Often the thieves just sit on the merchandise until the excitement dies down. Sometimes they already have a buyer in mind, and are "shopping" for that person.

A friend here had very expensive bagpipes (yeah, I know, but HE liked them) stolen and they turned up an entire year later. The guy called a "will buy instruments" ad in the paper, the person with the ad recognized that $20 for this set of pipes was, ah, cheap, and bought them. He then tracked down the owner, who was more than grateful.

Another friend had two LeBlanc clarinets stolen from her car when she "just ran inside for a minute" and she got them back when a local music store bought them from a guy months later, after she had replaced them. Two interesting things about this one: the music store sat on them for a month even knowing they were probably hers, and since she bought them back (for a song, just what they had paid for them) the insurance company let her keep the money she had collected on them. I find it odd that the music store a) did not get the ID of the person selling the clarinets, but maybe in the long run that was better, because she did get them back, and b) that they waited a month to contact her.

Good luck to the owner. These things are always full of wish-I-hads and shoulda-dones, but sometimes stuff just happens.

MA

[kctubadude]

Josh, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear about it.

Let me know if you need to borrow a horn until you get set up.

-jjw

[Jobey Wilson]

Oh, I'm sooo sorry. Having gone through this myself, I sympathize with your feelings. About 10 minutes after I realized my lacquer PCK was stolen out of my car (October 2007), I truly starting feeling dizzy & sick to my stomach...first time I felt physically sickened by "news" since a car wreck killed my best friend when i was 17.

Your local police dep't might have a "pawn shop unit" that receives weekly reports on all goods going in & out of shops...the Boston PD has one, but honestly, I never got much help out of them...even after my bag of Triton gig books (which was also stolen with the PCK) was found by a maid one week later at another hotel about 2 miles away from the theft.

The Tubenet guys & gals have helped some people recover stolen instruments. Though my PCK is still missing, I have received numerous emails over the last year from Tubenetters that spotted lacquer PCK's on Ebay & at shops (thanks again, everyone!!).

Please DO NOT post any remarks like "how could you leave your horn in your car," "my horn is never out of my sight," etc... I received numerous comments like this when I posted the theft of my PCK on Tubenet...with the mental state i was in at the time, if some of those people would have made those comments to my face, well, let's just say they probably wouldn't be able to play tuba for a while. In a perfect world, we'd all have full-time symphony jobs and could keep our horns locked up at work. In my particular case, I perform &/or teach in a different city, sometimes a different state EVERY day, and at some point almost each day, i have to leave my horns unattended for atleast a few minutes...unsettling, yes, but such is life. After one of these nasty posts to me last year, someone (perhaps Doc or Elephant) wrote a funny rebuttal similar to, "why don't we all just be safe and never leave our house? If we walk outside, we might get struck by lightening. If we get into our car, we might get into a wreck," etc... We should all be as cautious as possible, but you never know where lightening may strike. Here's a smarta$$ question for those smarta$$ posters; "Have you flown on a plane since 9-11? How could you even think of flying?" Oh...you drive everywhere...OK, then, "How could you even think of driving long distances? Do you know how many people are killed in car wrecks every year?" Oh, you ride a bike everywhere..."Do you know..." etc,etc, etc... Sorry for the rant, obviously a little nerved...jobey

[TubaRay]

Please DO NOT post any remarks like "how could you leave your horn in your car," "my horn is never out of my sight," etc...

Certainly, those type of posts, even when true, are not very sensitive. After all, losing a tuba(or euph) is almost like losing a best friend.

[brianggilbert]

I remember how I felt when I had my car broken into in West Philly and my hockey gear was stolen about 10 years ago.

If it were my horn, I think I'd really have a difficult time for a couple of weeks...

I was bummed when it was some DCI CDs and some stinky hockey stuff...

[sungfw]

Please DO NOT post any remarks like "how could you leave your horn in your car," "my horn is never out of my sight," etc...

Certainly, those type of posts, even when true, are not very sensitive.

And are N-E-V-E-R appropriate.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

I'm sure the young man involved has received the point about not posting such things again.

My wishes as well for a speedy recovery of the horns.

[tubathig]

man I hate to hear that... Hopefully they will turn up