Musician's stolen guitar spotted in pawn shop

A musician who "lost hope" of ever finding his electric guitar which was stolen two years ago has been reunited with his "pride and joy" after it was spotted on sale in a pawn shop.

Joshua Locke's Ibanez RRG350, which he got as an 18th birthday present, was taken from his garage in Ipswich on 9 July 2024 along with two other guitars and a bike.

Desperate to track the instruments down, the 37-year-old guitar teacher reported the theft to Suffolk Police and put an appeal out on social media, but to no avail.

But, on Thursday, an old school friend sent him a photo of his six-stringer on display in a local shop for £300 before the police got it back for him the next day.

"I'm very aware that I am a very small cog in a big machine and it's not really anybody's priority and there are more important crimes out there," he said.

"But the police officer called and said, 'I'm coming round to your house, I've got your guitar', and I was just like, 'wow', it was absolutely incredible.

"I've got a newborn who is two months old and I played her a tune on it and I just felt like I was 18 again – it made me feel young again."

Locke said he "absolutely" knew the guitar was his due to the wooden pattern on the instrument's headstock which he had made for it in school.

He initially did not hold out much hope of the shop believing it belonged to him, but it was soon restored to its rightful owner.

"I've got a tattoo of it on my arm, pictures of me playing it from 18 and I can show you all the modifications I've done to it and every ding and scratch on it," he said.

"It wasn't in the state I left it in, so I've got a lot of work to do to get it back to gigging standards, but I'm grateful to have it back."

The thief also stole a Fender Stratocaster and a Gretsch Electromatic, before fleeing the scene on Locke's bicycle, but it was the Ibanez that he was particularly keen to get back.

"I used to be in a band and the lead singer unfortunately died of cancer, and I miss him a lot," he added.

"Whenever I used to play that guitar, I used to think about him because he was just a bit of a legend and that guitar was a part of that legend.

"So, it's a part of my history and we assign a lot of sentimental value to things and sometimes it makes it tough when those things go, but it makes it even the better when they come back."

After the break-in, a fundraiser was set up which raised £1,800 - money Locke used to replace the guitars and buy strings, leads and equipment for the children he teaches to use.

"I felt isolated, alienated and detached from my community [after the break-in], and it felt like a dark and horrible place to be," he said.

"But then that fundraiser just reaffirmed what I always thought about humanity — that it's just full of good people and a couple of bad eggs."

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