SPOKANE, Wash. – A local musician who had his guitar equipment stolen over the weekend downtown was able to track down his items Wednesday.
After four days of calling more than thirty pawn shops in the area, musician Daniel Mills was able to locate his stolen items at a Pawn Shop near downtown.
"After a rigorous search of pawn shops I was able to find this stuff and get it back," Mills said. "The police delivered it to me today."
Mills says he reported the items stolen, but did not receive much help from police.
"They opened up a claim, but other than that there wasn't really anything else that I received," Mills said. "I basically had to find the stuff myself and make sure that I took responsibility for getting it back."
When he finally found the set of stolen guitar pedals, the fastest way for him to get it back was to buy the items from the Pawn Shop.
"In this case we're both victims so they have to get their money back and I have to get my stuff back," Mills said. "I was already planning on spending $1300 to get this back."
The Pawn Shop purchased his guitar equipment for $100, so he only had to pay that amount to retrieve his items.
Police usually keep the stolen items until the investigation is closed, but in this case they made an exception.
"They said we understand that you need this for work, so why don't you go ahead and take it."
The local Pawn Shop says they do check items before buying them to make sure they are not stolen. However, this only works if the item has been reported stolen and police have something unique to the item to reference.
Police suggest marking or engraving items with the serial number or a driver's license number to make it easier to get something back if it has been stolen. This will also help prevent an item from being sold to a Pawn Shop.
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