A California guitar store is calling for help from the community as it seeks to recover four Fender Custom Shop guitars that were stolen from its Pasadena store.
Posting CCTV images to its Instagram page yesterday, Wild West Guitars has revealed that the quartet of high-value Stratocasters was swiped from the store, before the perpetrators fled the scene in a getaway car.
“Today [June 5] at 4:18 PM, two individuals stole four Fender Custom Shop Stratocasters from our shop while a third acted as the getaway driver,” it states.
“They were seen leaving in a grey Chrysler 200 with a large visible dent on the rear passenger door and above the rear tire near the taillight.”
In the images shared, Wild West Guitars has used AI to enhance its low-resolution CCTV footage, providing a more detailed representation of what the thieves – one of whom is seen wearing a Pearl Jam shirt – look like.
The store will also be hoping that imagery of the car they escaped in will further help its cause. Wild West Guitars is located at 2840 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, California 91107.
“We need our community’s help,” it says.
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Two of the guitars stolen – 1960 hardtail Strats with Madagascar rosewood fingerboards and heavy relic’d finishes in Fiesta Red and Black – were made to celebrate the store’s 25th anniversary.
The other two include a Fat ’50s Stratocaster Relic in Chocolate, and a 1962 model with hand-wound pickups, a AAA dark rosewood slab fingerboard, and another heavy relic finish, this time in Lake Placid Blue. This distinctiveness of the relic’d finishes may help the recovery.
While guitar store thefts are disappointingly common, some stories do have happy endings. In April, police arrested a suspect linked to a crime ring that had been targeting Guitar Center stores across the US.
Last month, Police officers in California recovered an incredible $60,000 worth of stolen guitars, all of which still had their Guitar Center price tags on. Let’s hope they can have similar results here.
Readers with any relevant information can contact Wild West Guitars via email at info@wildwestguitars.com or via phone at (626) 507-5575.
