, we had a lot of nice gear. Maybe TOO nice, in retrospect.Since gigs were pretty scarce, a couple of us got 2nd shift jobs working in a hospital. Our lead guitarist had a big station wagon, and would pick me and the bass player up when our shift ended at 1:30 A.M.
We got home about 2:00 A.M., and walked into the front door of our big old band house. Sitting in the foyer near the front door was my Fender Rhodes piano. We just looked at each other, and said "WTF?" Then panic struck. We ran into the rehearsal room, and we had been ripped off, bigtime. Gone was my '65 Stratocaster, a Rickenbacker bass, our whole P.A. system, and the worst: A BORROWED Gibson 355 stereo guitar with gold humbuckers! We called the police, and as usual, they did --- nothing.
So we took this incredible loss into our own hands. We moved out to a house in the country within days, and put an advertising in the OKC paper with a reward for any information.
A week later, an old lady who lived across the street from our band house, called us. She said "Your old landlord is putting your instruments into a taxi cab right now! " The whole band jumped into the station wagon, and drove 90 mph back to the band house. We were ready to kick some serious a$$. We parked the car around the corner, and hid in some bushes. Then the taxi cab came around the corner. We swarmed the taxi, with our old landlord in the backseat. The driver punched it, and drove off like a bat out of hell. We got the number of the cab, and called the cab company. It was "out of service" that night. Again we called the police, and they, of course, said there was nothing they could do without "evidence."
What had happened, apparently, was that our landlord (an ex-con) had hidden all our gear in the dark corners of the old basement of this home. He waited until we split, and then had a "friend" who drove a taxi move our gear that night to fence it later. We then found out that his parole officer had gotten him a rehab job at a barber school. We went there to have "a little talk," and they told us that he had left town and moved to Dallas. --- A few years ago, I was looking on eBay, and found my '65 Strat. It HAD to be it, because it was sunburst and modified by Bill Lawrence in Kalamazoo where I bought it. Price? $35,000! Place? Dallas! --- a long story, but a good/bad one!
Ern
