Thursday, August 30, 2018

Finding your stolen guitar is freaking awesome

HERE'S A CAUTIONARY tale about stolen instruments and buying stuff from a guitar dealer in Iowa. There's a reason Second String Music doesn't buy used instruments off the street, and anytime you deal with used stuff online you are rolling the dice.

About a year ago our friend Alex Sanders had some items stolen from his step-father's house in Quincy. A dirtball or dirtballs broke a window to gain access, and they took Alex's Roland Juno keyboard, two guitars, an Ibanez 6-string bass and other items. Alex filed a police report and alerted the local pawn shops, but the items were never recovered.
This is a diving board AND a bass!

A couple of days ago Alex saw a message on the Quincy Illinois Area Musicians Facebook page. Much to his shock, there was a picture of his Ibanez bass. He checked the serial numbers to make sure, then called the person who was selling the bass, both on the Facebook page and on Reverb.

He had found his stolen guitar and was super excited to get it back.

The person turned out to be Chance McFadden of Fort Madison, Iowa. If you are a local musician or have dealt with him in the past, I don't have to say anything else. If not, take our word for it and be very careful when dealing with him. He's worked for a few places in the area and now does his own thing out of his garage.

Alex immediately made contact with Chance and told him the bass was stolen, and he had the paperwork and police reports to prove it. According to Alex, Chance was difficult and wanted $150 for the bass anyway, and gave him a sob story about needing the money.

"This isn't a personal matter," Alex said. "It's a legal matter. I'll go that route if you want."

When pressed about where he got the bass, Chance said he bought it at a local pawnshop. Alex went over there yesterday, and the pawnshop had no record of ever dealing with the bass.

Oops.

Then Chance pulled the classic "I'm a sovereign citizen" line and said he wouldn't give the bass back to Alex. By then, Alex decided to go the legal route, after Chance threatened to "drop the bass and break it."

Alex got copies of the Quincy Police Department reports, then called the Fort Madison Police Department and told them about his bass. We were going to go up there this morning, but to make a long story short, Chance saw the light and brought the bass to the police department, and Alex should be on his way shortly to pick up his stolen instrument.

Alex smartly refused to make it personal and instead had the authorities handle it. After all, you should never take a Chance with a used instrument online.

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