HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — Police are searching for a group of suspects who allegedly broke into a Harrisonville business and stole several vintage guitars from the store in broad daylight.
The suspects stole more than 20 guitars from Yesterday's Guitars on April 7, the Harrisonville, Missouri, Police Department said in a Facebook post.
Jim Chumley opened Yesterday's Guitars at 1905 Gaslight Drive as a way to keep busy during retirement.
He sells inexpensive guitars for beginners and vintage ones for collectors. Chumley said the group of thieves went after the vintage guitars.
"Some of those, if we don’t find them, are irreplaceable," Chumley told 41 Action News Wednesday.
Security cameras captured the suspects pulling up in a blue Dodge Caravan. Chumley said the suspects went to a business next door and broke into his store through the ceiling. Once inside, they unplugged the alarm system, he said.
Police said the theft was unusual for the city.
"This is a rather large theft that was kind of strange," Harrisonville Police Det. Steven Nichols said. "They did this in broad daylight on a Sunday morning. It’s very rare for our city."
Police told 41 Action News that suspects will usually try to unload their stolen goods rather quickly, whether it be online, with collectors or at pawn shops.
"The problem is that some guitars don’t have serial numbers on them, but several of the guitars are so unique that they will be easy to point out once we find them," Nichols said.
So far, two of the guitars have already been identified and recovered.
"They went to downtown Kansas City and walked in with three of the guitars, a guy and two gals, and as soon as the guy behind the counter got ahold of two of them and said, 'well, these were stolen,' they bolted with the other ones," Chumley said. "So we got two of them back already."
Police said they have identified the suspects based on tips from the Facebook post.
In the meantime, Chumley said he's prepared in case his business is targeted again.
"If anybody else tries to get in like they did, they got a rude awakening coming," Chumley said.
Anyone with information on the suspects or the theft is asked to contact Nichols at 816-380-8934 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
