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Tuesday, Dec. 02, 2008

Band thefts: Vigilance leads to teen's arrest

Police say 17-year-old tried to sell $3,000 saxophone at Gottschalk on Main Street.

And the band may play on.

Two days after seven musical instruments went missing from the Merced High School band room, police have arrested a teenager they say is linked to the thefts.

The arrest came Monday morning after the teen, a 17-year-old boy, tried to sell one of the allegedly stolen instruments at Gottschalk Music Center on Main Street.

A Gottschalk employee said a parent of one of the band students had stopped in a few minutes earlier to ask the store's staff to be on the lookout for the purloined instruments. When the teen came in soon after trying to sell a $3,000 tenor saxophone, the employee said he was immediately suspicious.

"I told him I had to go to the back to get the owner to look at it," said the employee, who asked not to be named in the newspaper. "That's when we called the police."

Merced police officers arrested the teen a few blocks away after a short foot chase. A friend who was with the suspect was held for questioning but released without charges, Cmdr. Floyd Higdon said.

Police declined to name the suspect because he's a juvenile. They also couldn't say whether he is a Merced High student. He will face charges of possession of stolen property, Higdon said. He will also be charged with burglary if investigators can tie him to the actual thefts.

"Just because someone is trying to sell stolen property it doesn't mean they stole it," Higdon said. "We're going to be digging into that to figure out exactly what happened."

The seven instruments were reported missing Saturday morning. Whoever stole them appeared to have entered the band room through a window, police said. Five vacuum cleaners valued at $500 each also were reported taken from a school storage area Saturday.

Band parents have been working since then to help recover the instruments.

Katherine Zupan, whose 14-year-old son Michael plays the trumpet and the mellophone at Merced High School, posted a plea on her MySpace page asking for help patrolling Craigslist and other Web sites where used instruments are sold. She planned to call local pawn shops looking for the instruments before she heard about Monday's arrest.

"It's just really upsetting and sad that someone would steal from band students," Zupan said. "I think the kids felt really violated by it. It would mean a lot to get the instruments back."

Mike Smith, treasurer of the Merced High School Band Boosters, said the thefts are especially unfortunate because of the band's tight budget. "It costs a lot of money to do what we do, and most of it comes from our own fundraising," he said. "We don't have the money for new equipment just lying around."

Higdon said it's uncertain whether Monday's arrest will lead to more arrests or the recovery of more of the instruments. "That's obviously the goal -- to get these items back to their owners," he said. "We just don't know yet."

Gottschalk has helped police recover stolen instruments several times before, said the store's owner, John Gottschalk. "We're always on the lookout for this kind of thing," he said. "We want to help when we can."

Police are asking anyone with information about the thefts to call (209) 385-6905 or the department's anonymous tip line at (209) 385-4725. Donations to the Merced High School Band can be made at any Washington Mutual branch, account no. 866-409-1001.

Reporter Corinne Reilly can be reached at (209) 385-2477 or creilly@mercedsun-star.com.