THIEVES!!! A Tale of Johnny Lightfingers

The Colonel

Silver Member
I am more than *EXTREMELY* pissed off today. My 14" K Constantinople hi hats, hand-picked from the Zildjian vault almost 10 years ago, and a gift from my [now deceased] grandfather (one of my absolute favorite people ever) have been stolen.

They were lifted some time last week. I had a gig last Sunday, and I am *99%* sure I had them after that - as my kit was the house kit here at my spot for 2 bands on Thursday. Didn't really get a chance to practice between those days so I cannot remember positively or not if I had them set up at the start of Thursday (but I'm pretty f-ing sure they were). Saturday night - after everyone split from here at 5am - I put my drums on the stage to play along with some DJ Shadow going through the PA (smoking hot girl here still dancing and said "I heard you play drums. Play" so I get to the hi-hat portion of setup and CANNOT FIND THEM.

Run back to my room - tear the place apart - nope. Gone. Run out to the stage - check under the staging - behind the sound booth - and go back and re-check my [gigantic] cymbal bag for the 27th time. GONE!

I just sent out a text to all the drummers and/or bandleaders who I either played with on Sunday and the bands that played here on Thursday (had my kit locked up in my room Friday and and the hi-hats weren't on the stand but I didn't think anything about it at the time.

I am going crazy over here. Yes, they're $450 a pair, but they mean more than that to me. Both sentimentally and just because they are the best hats I've ever heard (and every drummer who's into K's and has heard/played them agrees).

I am a very trusting person and have been letting people use my kit here if they ask (and have no problem with playing a smaller "jazz size" kit) but now I'm not so sure...

OH! I'm also missing one of my 16" Avedis & Cie "Vintage" crashes. I have two - and along with just using one as a crash, I will sometimes use them as hats for some really sloppy trashy smashy stuff (sound *GREAT*) and now one of THOSE is gone too....

I would like to think that hopefully someone just picked them up on accident in the cymbal swapping game - but I'm not holding my breath [much longer].


SO! Have you guys gotten stuff stolen? In NYC I had two snares and my favoritest keyboard in the whole wide world lifted from me in one fell swoop. I left the car for literally 20 seconds - I was 19 and wasn't really thinking...Hell, my dad leaves his keys in his unlocked car. I grew up in Vermont on a mountain. We never locked the door. I never had a house key... Obviously it's a different story in the big cities (I leave my front door now and depending on the time of day I'm surrounded by either hundreds to thousands of Mexican families shopping on Broadway or 10 crackheads who would love to find their way up my one flight of stairs if I accidentally left the door unlocked)

But *DAMNIT* I love those cymbals... I am just really upset right now.

Oh - and just to complete all sides of the story - I ended up using the other 16" crash as a top and my 16" thin crash that I purposefully smashed up (broken edges, chunks missing, cracks everywhere - sounds awesome) as a bottom - played straight through about 2 albums' worth of Shadow - and ended up getting a nice kiss from the girl - which was a little surprising and awkward because I was pretty sure she was with one of the two dudes who were also hanging around...Very awkward... but guys - *ridiculously* hot. Like "Who in the hell is *that*?" ...I need to get a camera and start doing a frickin' thread about this stuff.

Definitely distracted me for a little bit - which was nice. (*RIDICULOUSLY* hot!...I need to take a cold shower)
 
Man I'm sorry about your hats. I have a set of those and absolutely love them. I never let any of my equipment out of my direct line of vision when I am at a gig. I think yours are gone from the sounds of it.
 
That sucks but I agree with Average. Are you saying you left them at a bar from Sunday to Saturday? I have someone watch my stuff if I just go take a leak. This is why I said in another thread some time ago, I would be nervous having higher end irreplaceable kind of stuff to gig out with. Depends on the setting I guess.
 
Oh...uh, I own and live at a venue. I'm the only person in here unless one of my bands is here rehearsing, or if we've got an artist checking out the spot - which I'm around for. There's a shop on the 1st floor open from 11am-7pm. I'm on the 2nd floor - the steel door outside is *always* locked - the drums are always on the stage during the week, but it's basically an extra big living room that no one is in during the week. (we're open thurs/fri/sat nite)

On the positive - I *just* booked Nasheet Waits' new project for October, when they're in town. So that was great. Might be getting Branford (Marsalis) in here too, which hopefully means Tain will be in tow. So again - something nice to distract me.
 
That sucks. Hmmmmm..............I'm suspicious of the hot chick.
 
I am always suspicious of 'Hot Chicks'. I would deliberately date the Not-So-Hot....... just to be on the safe side.

Hot chicks are evil....

... anyways, that was a long time ago, maybe its all different now.

That awful, herr Kolonel....I was glad you had your thing going with your kit all set up and you playing and all of that.. and then this.......

I had a brand new snare stolen once, and I swore I'll kill the guy if I saw ever him. You feel so violated.. Sorry bud.. hope you get em back...somehow.
 
That's pretty horrible. I hope they somehow show up again. Keep an eye on craigslist for crackheads selling K Constantinople hats for ridiculous prices.

Kudos on the chick though.
 
Also - you don't need to worry about the hot girls' evilness if you don't get attached...I don't have the ability to not get attached so that prior sentence has no bearing on me...Beware hot girls, guys. Oi...


And also - OMG!!!! One of Thursday's drummers: "Think I have em. Just loaded up cymbals for a show 10 min ago, and half noticed them...yep. sorry brotha. they r safe. I'm lookin at um right now boss."



*KISSING...well nothing right now...but *WILL KISS THEM UPON THEIR RETURN*


No sign of 16" crash though...
 
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Man, that sucks! Experience has taught me not to leave anything of value around and out of my sight unless it's locked up with my lock and I'm the only one with the key or bolted to the ground. It double sucks since those were gift from your granddad.

The last standing venue gig I had I took a lot of harrassment from people because the kit I had there was also very sentimental to me and I took it home after every performance. They couldn't understand why I took it home, yet they had thieves hit their place and rip off the entire sound system. I bought a low end kit off of eBay then and just kept it there. I took my Paiste cymbals home with me though, as I didn't have the cash to replace them if they were stolen.

I hope you get them back. With the economy the way it is, and many people are out of work, we need to be especially careful nowadays.

Good luck.
 
Luckily I've never had anything stolen, but a good guitarist friend called one night. "Hey man, are you gigging tonight? No? Great. Can my drummer borrow your cymbals? His were just stolen while we were loading in."

The whole band was taking stuff in, he left his trunk open, and when he walked back out, his cymbal bag was gone. Sucked.

I'm glad that you will get your hats back.
 
PHEW! That was a close one Colonel

Like having a kidnapped child return!


Congratulations!
 
And also - OMG!!!! One of Thursday's drummers: "Think I have em. Just loaded up cymbals for a show 10 min ago, and half noticed them...yep. sorry brotha. they r safe. I'm lookin at um right now boss."

What the -?
Was this guy even thinking when packing those? I always take extra care if I play a set that's part mine and part someone else's, I don't want to walk away with someone else's stuff and certainly don't wanna lose any of my own.
 
The gig was at 2:30am and he was probably a little more than buzzed - and with a few bands going on and changing cymbals/snare-drums I can understand how it might've happened.


Wish I was getting my crash back as well...
 
glad to hear u got them back man. some lowlife pinched my 20'' aa chinese when i was playin a metal gig years ago and all the bands were sharing the same kit. it was probably the best cymbal amongst all the other cheap ones that were on show that night, and someone thought 'i'll have that'. still annoyed bout it to this day. think i'd be even more annoyed if my cymbals had greg hutchinson's autograph on 'em!
 
I hate threads like this. It just brings back painful memories and feelings of outrage. I had a brand new PA stolen, Mackie mixer, QSC amp along with some cymbals and a snare drum and my guitarist had his rackmount effects stolen along with his head when someone broke in to my warehouse back in '95.

You can still take action though, Colonel. First off, assume that it was another drummer, since the other cymbals and most of the other stuff was left. Whoever took them was very selective in what they wanted. Next, reconstruct the time when your kit was being used by the house. Find out every band that played and find out when and where each of those bands is playing next. Go check out those bands at their gig and see if your stuff is there. I know it's a longshot, but it may be the only thing you have to go on.
 
Happy ending. To be honest, there's definitely some gear of unknown origin around the band room. It's a consequence of everybody pitching in, and trying to be efficient going on and off the stage.

Hey, did anybody see my pedal?

Oh, yeah. I got it.

No, I did.

I absolutely did.

Never mind, here it is.

Ut oh.
 
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