Zurich: How the instrumente-Total-Team tracked down the thief of their stolen guitar
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ZurichEnglishman steals a 13,000-franc guitar – he fails when it is resold
The “Guitar Total” team won’t let the theft of a handmade guitar sit on their own. Patrick Geser tells how he and his team found and arrested the thief.
That’s what it’s about
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An English steel from a guitar shop an instrument worth 13,000 francs.
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The owner of the shop and his team did not let the theft sit on them and track down the thief.
And she was gone: a guitar worth 13,000 francs. The instrument was stolen on November 11 from the shop “Guitar Total”, owned by Patrick Geser. A reason for the guitar lover to get active. Because: “This is not just any guitar, this is a one-off with its own character,” says Geser. But theft is also annoying from an insurance point of view – if it is a “simple theft”, the insurance company will not pay anything.
The guitar total team only realized that the instrument had been stolen two days after the thief had struck. Geser: “A shop in Basel called us and said that instruments had been stolen from them and had reappeared on an Internet sales platform.” The managing director immediately looked at the surveillance camera footage: it shows the thief taking the expensive guitar from the unsecured hook and hanging a cheaper instrument on the free spot.
Thief sells under real name
Gezer reported the stolen theft to the police. At the same time, he and his team also began to look for the thief – with success: “It wasn’t long before we knew his name and found out that he lived in England.” The thief made a crucial mistake: his account on the “Reverb” platform was under his real name. “That’s how we found him on Facebook and Instagram.” The police even found out from photos on Facebook who the man was staying with and in which hotel. As a result, the officers later obtained the thief’s passport number. But: “It was too late to catch him in Switzerland. He was already mature.”
However, Geser and his team did not think about giving up: “We opened a fake account on Reverb to contact the thief online.” He had already offered the stolen guitar for sale on the platform. He took the pictures for the platform in a Swiss hotel. “Again we contacted the police in England and at the same time contacted the thief.” The plan: buy the guitar, agree on the place of delivery, travel to London and pick up the instrument there accompanied by the police and convict the thief at the same time. But things turned out differently: “The police didn’t say anything and the guy canceled the handover date.”
“We are happy – the effort was worth it”
Geser also turned to legal aid in Switzerland. This contacted Reverb, detailed the case and asked for the thief’s contact details. Only: “For data protection reasons, we did not get the information we needed. Instead, the thief’s account was suspended.” A short time later, however, Geser learned from the person responsible at Reverb that his guitar had meanwhile been bought by the Cashconverter pawnshop and had been placed on Ebay for resale. “Finally the London police got involved as well, since there was now a criminal offence.”
Namely that of receiving stolen goods: “The thief was unable to present an original receipt when the guitar was sold and therefore could not prove that the instrument was an honestly acquired item.” Instead of a receipt, the pawnshop thief had a copy of his contact details and his estate – and soon got a visit from the police.
This is how an odyssey comes to an end for Geser and his team. “We are happy – the effort was worth it.” The instrument is now in safe hands: “A friend of mine is in England at the moment and picked up the guitar from the police station.”
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