May 9 I BEST IN MUSIC I THEFT
Best In Music Recovers Stolen $12K Guitar

Best In Music has recovered its 75th Anniversary John Lennon Martin D-28, which was stolen from the store on April 28. The guitar was No. 35 out of 75 made and has a list price of $12,000.

The Orem, Utah-based retailer won the opportunity to buy one of the 75 John Lennon signature guitars through a lottery of all Martin dealers worldwide this past January.

The thief, who had stolen a Fender American Strat worth $1,300 from Murphy's Guitars in Bountiful, Utah, on April 27, came into the main Best In Music location the following day to look at guitars.

After being in the store for over 30 minutes, he asked to be let into the locked high-end acoustic room. Once the employee became involved with a customer at the sales counter, the culprit made a bee line to the front door with the John Lennon guitar in hand. When Marcus Hight, Best in Music general manager, noticed the guitar was missing, he reviewed the surveillance footage and, through the help of another employee, identified the thief as the same man who stole from Murphy's Guitars the day before.

Mike Murphy, owner of Murphy's Guitars, had posted images of the thief on Facebook and the Best In Music employee recognized him from the Facebook post. After notifying the police, Marcus Hight posted images of the thief on Facebook, sharing the post to various local musician groups. The post went viral quickly, as musicians shared the post nearly 600 times in 24 hours, allowing the post to reach over 25,000 people. The post from Murphy's Guitars, along with Best In Music's post, alerted other local business owners to be on the lookout for the suspect.

The following day, the thief visited Performance Audio in Salt Lake City, looking to buy guitar cases for the stolen items and was instantly recognized by employees. The employees were able to get the suspect's license plate number and called the police. The suspect was arrested, and both the Fender Strat and the limited edition Martin were in the trunk of the suspect's car at the time of his arrest.

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