Vintage guitar store owner speaks out after stolen instruments returned in Teaneck, New Jersey
TEANECK, New Jersey (WABC) — The owner of a New Jersey vintage guitar store is speaking out after one drunk thief apparently changed his tune and returned two mandolins that he had previously stolen.
Lark Street Music said that two previously stolen mandolins – a small, guitar-like instrument in the lute family – had been returned to the store, along with a handwritten note partly in all caps that read, “SORRY, I BEEN DRUNK, MERRY CHRISTMAS You are good man.”
Buzzy Levine, who has owned the store since 1981, said he was shocked when the instruments were returned.
“I noticed someone opening the door, bending down, and then splitting. So I walked over there in the shopping bags there were the two mandolins in the bag. I couldn’t believe it,” Levine said.
The store had previously posted surveillance video online depicting the alleged thief stuffing the instruments beneath his parka and leaving the store on Monday, Dec. 22, and asking for help in identifying the culprit.
“You see over that window. There’s that space. That where there were two mandolins. I keep the wall filled in case something like that happens and then Tom went to the video and found the guy. He had a jacket with a huge pocket and he put it there. He looks around no one’s watching so he took the other one and put it on the other side,” Levine said.
Levine said he contacted the police as well, but four days later the thief brought them back.
“I suspect that a friend of his or his mother said,’ hey,’ Levine said.
Police are using the two mandolins as evidence in the case against the thief, but have not made any arrests.
The mandolins are worth $4,000 a piece and the man will most likely face charges, police said.
“There was a note and box of chocolates. It said ‘I been drunk. Merry Christmas. You a good man,’ Levine said.
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