Santa Cruz, California Police Seize $225,000 Worth of Stolen Guitars

Nine stolen guitars recovered by the Santa Cruz Police Department
(Image credit: Santa Cruz Police Department/Associated Press)

Police in Santa Cruz, California have recovered $225,000 worth of stolen guitars, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Nine guitars – '57 and '58 Gretsch Country Club models, a '60 Gretsch Chet Atkins model, a pair of 12-string Rickenbackers, a '59 Rickenbacker Capri, a Gibson Chet Atkins Classical Electric, a limited-edition vintage Strat, and a Hofner 500 bass – were seized by the Santa Cruz Police Department in three different locations in the city, after a tip from the Los Angeles Police Department.

The guitars were stolen in Los Angeles as part of the $2 million heist of a Marina Del Rey storage unit in July 2020. Though several arrests were made for that robbery in August 2020, no arrests were made during the seizures in Santa Cruz, as police have yet to establish a firm link between the Santa Cruz residents in possession of the instruments and the earlier heist.

Some of the instruments were set to be sold from Santa Cruz through reverb.com.

Santa Cruz police are asking anyone with further information about the case to contact detective Trevor Kendall at 831-420-5963 or leave information on a Crime Tip Line at 831-420-5995.

Jackson Maxwell
Associate Editor, GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.