There’s been a few despairing cases of late of musicians having their equipment stolen, including The Smith Street Band’s recent “#ampgate” saga involving the recovery of a stolen amplifier following an online manhunt, while 80s pop stars A Flock Of Seagulls are still smarting from a van heist that saw them robbed of $70,000 worth of gear and even recordings for a new album.
Now over $30,000 worth of rare and valuable music instruments has been stolen from the home of an elderly couple living in the regional New South Wales town of Wagga Wagga, as The Daily Advertiser reports.
The unfortunate victims are 70-year-old Terry Phegan and his wife, Anne, who were robbed of their collection of musical instruments during a break-in of their Lake Albert home. The Phegans are distraught at the loss of their valuable $30,000 collection and are offering a substantial reward for their return because of the sentimental value attached to the instrument collection, which they’d spent 20 years collating. “We travelled all around Australia and it took 20 years to acquire the collection by going to antique and music shops.”
Mr Phegan says he took great pride in his collection, hung on display at his domestic music room, with a passion for music that stretches back to playing at the age of seven. The home display was to commemorate the fact he could no longer play any instruments because of a degrading muscle disease that has weakened his hands. “The effrontery of people who will walk in to your home and take something…” remarked Mr Phegan of the heartless theft.
Stolen from their home at Lakehaven Drive last month, the $30k collection included two saxophones, two trombones, a tenor horn, a vintage trumpet from the 1860s, a bugle, banjo mandolin, and a violin.
But of greatest value to Mr Phegan was a Tomkins branded guitar, stolen from his former address at Stellway Close a number of years ago, a handmade six-string estimated to be worth $5,000 but which Mr Phegan says is irreplaceable.
The couple are hoping for the recovery of the stolen instruments and believe that the collection is still somewhere in Wagga Wagga. “It’s getting out of control in Wagga with people thieving at random,” said Mr Phegan, “there must be someone who knows where these things are.”
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Anne Phegan believes that someone had been casing their house in preparation to steal their valuable music collection, which was lifted from their home while the couple were absent. “We wonder if someone knew we had them,” she said. “You could say a lot of time and value went into collecting them.”
“We travelled all around Australia and it took 20 years to acquire the collection by going to antique and music shops. We have security cameras set up where the theft took place and have passed footage to police,” adds Mrs Phegan.
The couple have put the call out to anyone with information to contact them directly, handing their personal details to The Daily Advertiser in the hopes that someone in the community has information.
“I just thought I’d give it a crack,” Mr Phegan said. “I put a hell of a lot of effort into getting them.”
(Photo: Les Smith Source: The Daily Advertiser)
