Late last month we wrote about Rick Faris and a banjo that seemed to have been taken at the SPBGMA convention in Nashville. At the time, he was hoping that someone had picked it up by mistake, and might return it to him once they discovered it had come home with them unawares.
But it turns out that it had been stolen, and ended up at a Nashville retail outlet who wisely suspected it had been obtained illegally.
Rick has it back, and he shared this brief update to the story, with a very satisfying conclusion.
“I just wanted to let you know that I picked up my banjo from the Guitar Center in Nashville, Tennessee. It was due to the diligence of the gentleman at Guitar Center checking to make sure that the instrument wasn’t stolen, then got in touch with Vanderbilt police, and were able to keep my banjo ’till I could come and collect it this evening.
I’m so thankful to the Vanderbilt police department’s Corporal Green, as well as the staff at Guitar Center for making this possible! I’m also thankful for the friends who have shared the post and made it known far and wide, so that it caught the attention of the folks at Gibson. They marked it as stolen and when Guitar Center called, they notified them immediately that it was indeed stolen.
Yay for happy endings!!”
We share Rick’s joy in the return of his missing banjo. Instrument thieves are a lowly lot, not at all representative of the bluegrass community. For shame!
