LaneS Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) florida heat would be a bad situation for those instruments anyway. But never the less, it sucks that they have lost that much EQ. It was really smart of them to put a thread on here. Edited February 19, 2007 by LaneS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumcat Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I'll be the a-hole here.If the corps is inactive this summer, why were the horns still on the truck? Shouldn't they have been in storage somewhere? I agree. I don't know how, but it just seems silly to have had them like that. Look at it this way though... if you want to be optimistic, if indeed those instruments were insured, maybe it'll help the corps somehow. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but it does seem very quirky that people would steal marching percussion instruments. Sets of quads wouldn't seem too desirable; they're awfully rare compared to what normally goes for a quick buck. And the note... WTF? Something doesn't add up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PioneerWebmaster Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) The fact of the matter is that things like this do happen and it really doesn't matter where you store your instruments at. This link is from the City of Milwaukee police reports. If you scroll down to "Burglary of businesses", you'll see that musical instruments were stolen from a storage facility between Dec. 13 and Dec. 26th. It proves that storage facilities really aren't all that secure either. And the fact of the matter is that if you can steal it, you can almost always find a market to sell it. The Internet is an amazing marketplace for stolen goods. Recent statistics show that "e-fencing" is now a $37 million dollar per year business (if you want to call it that) that makes approximately 70 cents on the dollar for what the perps steal. Ebay is only one of the marketplaces available. Google the phrase "online auction", and you'll come up with over 24,000,000 hits. If you also spend a couple more minutes on Google, you'll find a lot of sites dedicated to helping people recover stolen instruments. Granted, a lot of the stolen instruments that are being posted are classics/collectors items, it's still overly apparent that there's a definite interest in stealing musical instruments of any type. Anyone who's even partially aware of this and sees a trailer clearly marked "drum corps" sitting in an isolated area might see this as a jackpot. They might have planned things out a bit, or maybe it might have been impulsive. In any event, I will assure you that it took far less than 45 minutes to get the job done. In fact, I'd be willing to be that it probably took less than 10 or 15 minutes max from the time they got the trailer open to the time they were leaving the scene. In my marching days, we could unload all 40 or 50 horn cases off of the truck with two or three people at a show site in a couple minutes. And that was handling them with care. These thieves weren't going to handle them with care. They probably tossed them off the truck as fast as they could and moved on to the next thing. Odds are they probably came in some type of larger van, or possibly even in an old U-Haul or Ryder truck (thieves/scavengers in my neck of the woods love to buy them when U-Haul sells them). If they were there in the middle of the night, it would be very unlikely that anyone would notice them in that short of a period of time. And even if they did, it's a real coin toss if they would have even called it in. I don't put much faith in ever recovering the instruments. The only way I could see that happening is if the thieves encounter resistance when trying to sell the items. In that case they might just dump the equipment somewhere and cut their losses. I recall that happening a while back with another corps in our area. That would be the best case scenario, however I don't envision it being very likely. I'd be more willing to bet that the instruments slowly start to show up online somewhere... it's just a matter of finding where that somewhere is! I wish the folk at KK the best with this situation. Hopefully it resolves itself in a positive manner some how or some way. If anything, it should re-enforce to all other corps the importance of getting proper insurance on all corps' equipment, and the importance of securing the equipment to the best of the corps' ability during the off season. Edited February 19, 2007 by PioneerWebmaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 They left a note saying "BUSTIN U" taped to the back door. That means (potentially) fingerprints and a handwriting sample. That's at least something for a good CSI lab to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard07 Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) wouldn't that be considered a felony? what was taken was probably worth over $10,000 at least. I believe, In the state of Florida, Grand Theft is viewed anything between $300-$5,000 so it would probably end up being multiple counts of grand theft, two or three? regardless I hope Kavies can get back on their feet, they don't deserve this and I feel horrible for them. Edited February 19, 2007 by Vanguard07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mersinger3 Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I hope these scum bags know they killed many kids dreams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 were they insured? I questioned that too but even if they were, they would be hard pressed to get the full value for the instruments stolen !! Insurance companies always look for errors by the claimants and try to wiggle their way out of paying any claim at all. <**> Even if the insurance company does pay, it will be a major short fall in replacing all the instruments. Why can't KK get a break ? :sshh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Wow - this sucks - KK you deserve a break.... How common is this? We (Royalaires) had our equipment truck broken into a few years back. I understand the cops pulled a couple of guys over a week or so later heading down the highway with horns piled up to the roof in the back of their car on the way to complete the deal. This stinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senagod Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) You would be amazed at what thieves will take. I'm in school to become a court reporter, and we've had multiple instances of people having their steno machines stolen. Now, most people have no clue what a steno machine looks like or how much it's worth. That doesn't stop thieves. One girl I know had her steno machine and laptop stolen from her car. The thieves kept the laptop, and the steno machine ended up in the Schuylkill River. I hope they catch these guys. KK deserves a break. Edited February 19, 2007 by Senagod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John M. Johnson Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 The folks here in Heat Wave will keep an eye out for any of the equipment. It is a terrible shame that these things happen. We've had some equipment stolen in the past too. We understand the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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