Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Guitar Stolen From By My Head

ID Card Was In The Case
I always suspected that there were people with nothing better to do than try to find out where a guitarist (or anyone with anything of value) sleeps and then plot to steal his guitar, or his thing of value, given the environment I am in.

My guitar was stolen from right by my head late last night, the same way the alarm clock had been, about a week ago. There are two other guys, who sleep around the side of the church, and who had a backpack stolen the same night my alarm clock was. We figured that the thieves had left town, as, few would be stupid enough to walk around sporting a stolen backpack. Maybe there are a fresh set of thieves.

The Guy And The Woman

I had lied down pretty early, and woke up around midnight, as a guy and a woman climbed up onto the porch, and were preparing to lay down in one of the other shadows. I was sure that I had seen them before. I didn't see them as a threat, but...

I was in and out of sleep, as evidenced by the gaps in the radio programs. I had my guitar right by my head, as noted in the head of this article.

Every time I woke up, I glanced over at the other homeless people, to see if they were still there. I was using them as an alarm clock, as I knew that they would most probably not miss the free breakfast. I don't know if the fact that one was a woman made them seem like less of a threat, but, I guess it shouldn't have.

Sometimes I observed them lying down, sometimes sitting up. They didn't have even a piece of cardboard to lay on. Both of these things should have been red flags, now that I think of it.

Their restlessness could have meant they were on crack; the lack of anything to lay on, could have meant that they weren't there to sleep, but on some other mission. Either way, I should have wrapped the strap of my guitar case around my arm, as I often do.

At one point, I was thirsty and had one of my energy drinks, even though they are not recommended for bedtime. This made my sleep even lighter.
I must have thought that I would wake up, should anyone come near.

In the early morning, I woke to see the two of them gone. I still had my guitar.
I rose one last time as dawn was breaking. They had returned, and were sitting up in their spot.
I noticed the guitar missing, and confronted them.

The man immediately got defensive and said something like: "If there's one thing that I'm not, that's a thief!"

I was thinking that it was exactly what a thief would say. In fact, the more vehemently they protest, the guiltier they sound.

Then he added, "Besides, what would I need a GUITAR for, anyways!?!" Perfect, just like the thief who stole a carton of Newports and defended herself with: "I don't even smoke menthols!," then went and sold them for 20 bucks to someone who did...

I sat there a while longer, considering waiting for them to leave, and then tailing them.

The guitar would have been stashed somewhere, to be sold later, or had already been sold during the night to a dope dealer, which would be consistent with them being up fidgeting most of the night, and then disappearing at 2 am, on some kind of "errand."

I told them that it wasn't likely that someone would come onto the porch with 3 people there, any one of which might be awake.
The woman answered "We left for a while," a little bit too quickly, I thought.

In hindsight, I should have acted as if nothing was wrong. (What did I expect them to say, anyways, when I confronted them?)

That would have cast a different light on people like the guy at The Coffee Club, who asked me where my guitar was, and when told that it was stolen, asked if I had any clues as to who took it.

He may have been trying to be helpful, but, he also reminded me of the arsonists who show at a fire, and ask if they have, "Any suspects?"

What To Do

There isn't much else to do about it, but inform the pawn shop owners, and I suppose, the police.

As far as what I will do myself, I'm posting this to let everyone (who reads this) know what happened, and I will sit and think, and drink grape juice for a day or so; and try to decide what to do next. I'm faced with the hassle of replacing another ID card, also.

This will also allow a couple of days for the chance that it might just "turn up" somewhere.

Nobody can reasonably expect to pawn it in this city, and it wouldn't be worth driving to another place for the 20 bucks, which is all they could get for it, as it has been banged around in the past year and a half.


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