recap of the theft and recovery of Tommy Castros Axes

Crimefighters for the blues -- a recap of the theft and recovery of Tommy's axes

Yesterday I was reading e-mails on my way from the City to my job in
San Rafael with a planned stop over at the Civic Center Library where
I do SF Blues Club and Blues Clues duties and updates for Tommy
Castro's yahoo fan club when I saw a message from Tommy from the
evening before asking me to spread the word about the his and Steve
Spirn's guitars being ripped off.

Here's what I sent him at 10:22am (PDT):
"Some of the local music message boards are already chatting about
your sad loss and I'll be putting messages on the one's that haven't
heard yet. Make sure you check in with that little pawn shop next
door to what used to be New George's...under the assumption that
thieves aren't a smart lot the stolen loot could turn up close to the
scene of the crime (which I'm assuming was Santa Venetia). I'll
probably remind folks that you make magic happen on those replica
copies of strats that you give away from time to time so your career
isn't exactly ruined but I know that finding guitars that have the
tonality you desire isn't an easy task. Possible suspect: maybe
Nitro snuck in and took it back (that's supposed to be a joke). I'm
gonna be posting most of Steve (Spirn)'s message (which I got from
Rich P this morning) which has more details than yours. If you have
the serial numbers available please pass them on to me and I'll do
the same where I can."

The bus I was on stops within two blocks of the pawn shop I'd alerted
Tommy about but thinking it wouldn't be open yet I continued North to
the library.

Once there I confirmed that SonomaTunes and the Blues Clues sites had
alerts posted as well as Myspace and Blues-L but the BABC hadn't so
at 11am I posted what I knew:

"Three Fender Statocasters were stolen from Steve (TCB's
soundman/guitar tech) Spirn's truck on Sunday night. One was Steve's
1979 tobacco sunburst hartail and the other two were Tommy Castro's--
a 2000 NOS black strat and his prized 1966 black strat. The heist
took place in the Santa Venetia area of San Rafael so those of you in
the North Bay who find themselves walking by a pawn shop or guitar
store might want to poke your heads in the door and see if you've
helped solve the crimeand the same goes for those of you farther on
down (or up) the road."

At 1:31pm I got an exited call from Janet and Felix Bannon from the
Pawn shop I'd alerted Tommy about telling me that the guitars were
there and that Tommy had walked into the place a few minutes after
they did. Here's what they posted to the SonomaTunes site at 3:14pm
(PDT):

"Felix and I happened to be at the pawn shop in San Rafael when Tommy
Castro came in! The guy working there had all three of his guitars in
the back. From their conversation, he had called Tommy as soon as he
realized they were his.

"You're lucky the guy was stupid enough to pawn them all here, in the
same
town."

Tommy was really beside himself in relief. "How often does this
happen? That someone gets a guitar back that was stolen?" Not just
one, but ALL THREE of them, in the same place!

It was amazing. We were amazed that we were there to witness this!!!
Wow.

He let Felix hold the 1966 Strat, since Felix can't see, to check it
out. I was tripping on seeing the back of it, in person, after seeing
the picture of it just recently.

The person that stole the guitars is still out there. For now.

Beware!! He is probably feeling pretty bold at having gotten away
with this.

We're just SO glad Tommy got his guitars back!!!"

..."What I overheard is, the pawn shop guy DOES have a copy of his ID
(fingerprints? I didn't hear that mentioned). But, it turns out, that
the guitars were never reported stolen to the police.

So, more overheard conversation between Tommy and the pawn shop
patrons and owner, if Tommy wants to get this guy, so he doesn't
steal again from someone else, he'll have to turn in his guitar as
evidence (at least one guitar) for the police to hold. He's reluctant
to do that! We sure understand that!

He says he's going to talk to his lawyer about it to find out if
there's another way to get that guy. Because it really did bother
him, and us, and everyone,
that this thief got away with it.

Tommy bought his guitars back from the pawn shop (at cost, of
course)."

--------------------------

The following was reported to the TCB Fan Club site at 6:34pm (PDT)by
Jenipher who I belive to be TCB bassist Scott Sutherland's mate:

"I just got off the phone with Scot. Here's what I know (with sordid
little details left out):

A guy (who's also a musician) was out for a jog in San Rafael this
morning. He stopped in a pawn shop and saw the guitars. He called
another musician, who, in turn, called Tommy. Tommy went and got the
guitars....the police were contacted. All three guitars are unharmed
and intact, safely in their owner's arms tonight. The thief was a
teenage boy who doesn't live far from Steve's house in San Rafael. He
was easily apprehended as he gave his actual name and address to the
pawn shop (idiot). Those of us who know other musicians who have lost
gear can attest to the miracle that stories like this rarely have
such a rapid, happy ending. I can only imagine the total despair
Tommy and
Steve experienced at the loss of their instruments....followed by the
relief and sheer bliss with their recovery."

-----------------------

At 5:23pm (PDT) I received an e-mail from Tommy as response to the
message I'd sent him to start the day:

"Gotem back!!"

-------------------------

This message, which I recieved from Vintage1 at 8:49pm (PDT) provides
a bit more of the back story:

"Of course- we still can't believe that is was stolen in the first
place, and recovered in less that 48 hours. It rarely happens this
way, and it is an extremely happy ending indeed!

He was literally beside himself when we spoke in the morning at
9:30am, and I told him we'd get it back. When he called at 3pm, all
he said is 'I've got the guitars back!' And I said "Who is this??"

The band had finished up a day of recording Sunday, and one of the
guys took three guitars back to his house. (Key mistake- he left
them in the vehicle
overnight, and they were taken from the vehicle. No- it wasn't
Tommy...........)

The person that stole the guitars took them to a local pawn shop in
down town San Rafael, where all three were sold for just over $400
total. I think that through the power of the net, a customer in the
shop already knew that Tommy's #1 guitar had being stolen, and
informed the owner that he had better contact Tommy ASAP. ( Both of
the others were Fender Stratocasters too- a 1970's sunburst, and his
black '69 RI backup stage Strat. )

To complete a speedy recovery, TCB compensated the shop owner the
amount he had paid out.Tommy felt the owner had enough info ( req'd
by law, BTW ) to move forward and prosecute the thief!

The net can spread the word FAST! Thanks for the extra effort-
especially fan Randy Sampson in San Rafael, who took a lot of extra
time this morning contacting shops and players / collectors in the
area..."

------------------------

So, fellow crimefighters, thanks to all for helping Tommy get his
babies back and restoring peace and love in bluesland for a minute or
two.

W00H00!!
peace
Bluezman