Help A Brother In Need
By John Swartz
If someone approaches you trying to sell a guitar, it’s likely stolen. Last February 13, in the afternoon, someone broke into Josh Jeffery’s Warminster home/studio and stole 12 guitars.
“To see my front door pretty much mangled and then walk down the stairs and go to my studio room and it’s mangled too,” Jeffery said, “I was just dumbfounded. It’s one of the things I do for a living and I’m always working out new music, obviously for the Jeffery Brothers, but also for other artists that are up and coming.”
Jeffery Brothers? With all the musicians in the area, it comes as a bit of a surprise to find another living in the area, especially with an instrument arsenal of that size. The Jeffery Brothers are Josh and his twin brother Nick. They spent the early part of their career based in Toronto, recorded two albums, and have played concerts in Canada and the United States. They also spent 12 years in Europe before they came home, Josh to this area, Nick to Ottawa.
“We’re starting a new record and all that kind of jazz too. I was just getting down to business on that and to see all the guitars gone, it’s just devastating. Waiting for my guitars is not going to finish the record, so I’ve got to get some more guitars going,” said Jeffery.
He managed to get a still image of a pickup truck suspected to be involved in the theft from a video camera, but it’s not the best.
“It was a stormy day that day, cloudy” he said. The thief, or thieves, didn’t have it easy.
In a prepared statement Jeffery said,
“An eyewitness account saw two suspects in grey sweat shirts with hoods up, unknown male or female, and (they) witnessed the suspects breaking into the studio.
(The) Vehicle model was a Black GMC/Chevy 2500-Tinted window 2016/2019 Model seen leaving at a high rate of speed.”
Both the main door and the studio door are metal and locked. “All the guitars are missing without their cases. It’s every musician’s nightmare because you take care of your instruments,” said Jeffrey
That is the hard part to comprehend, just taking the guitars and leaving the cases. It’s disrespectful to the owner and the instruments and shows either a lack of brains, or caring. Nick Jeffery said there were very few people who knew of the studio because they only used it for recording their own music.
“These people, I don’t know who they are or what their deal is, but hopefully they get caught,” Josh Jeffery said. What will happen to the guitars is a guessing game. When other musicians have had their gear stolen often other musicians get approached to buy at a really good price (which usually leads to the instruments being recovered because musicians look out for each other). With so many guitars involved, it also may be the case they are not in the area anymore.
“Unless they had somebody else involved, a buyer or something, but I can’t see that happening especially with these kinds of guitars. They’re not run-of-the-mill. They’re expensive guitars,” he said of the collection he values at about $50,000.
Jeffery is relieved his recording equipment and amplifiers were left behind.
“I would have figured they would take all the electronics because guitars are kind of hard to get rid of I would think, or somebody is going to see them.”
Anyone who has any information is asked to call the Orillia OPP at 705-326-3536 or 1-888-310-1122. Jeffery said there is an incentive.
“Right now the OPP is offering a reward for $2,000 for any information and $10,000 for an arrest,” said Jeffery. To go that route contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or online.
Here is a photo gallery of the missing guitars.
(Photos Supplied)
