From our content partner Channel 3000
MADISON, Wis. – As the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department investigates reports of nearly $30,000 worth of stolen instruments, one music student is hoping for the return of her beloved violin.
“At first it didn’t seem real,” said Samantha Carter, whose violin, which has an estimated value of $10,000, disappeared over Thanksgiving break.
Theft is one of the most common crimes campus police deal with, but investigating a string of instrument burglaries is rare, according to public information officer Marc Lovicott.
“It’s horrible whenever you hear about it,” graduate student Thomas Huffmaster said. “It would devastate me and anyone here.”
Huffmaster’s tuba is safe, but he heard about the stolen instruments, including Carter’s violin.
“It’s like losing a member of your family or a part of yourself,” Carter said.
Carter kept her violin by her side for six years and needs it for rehearsals and practicing for grad school auditions in January. Instead, it’s in someone else’s hands.
“It’s completely unpredictable what’s going to happen between now and then,” Carter said.
She said she’d ask whoever took her violin to “consider the lives you’re affecting by doing this.”
What an awful thing to return to after break. Samantha's violin was one of six instruments reported stolen to UW police…
Posted by Madalyn O'Neill on Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Carter is sure she locked it up in the basement of the Humanities building Nov. 27 and came back Sunday afternoon to find it gone.
“I was just kind of completely in shock,” Carter said. “Then I started to panic.”
UW police said they’re investigating reports of six instruments stolen — everything from a piccolo to a cello, altogether worth about $28,000.
“When you think about how valuable these instruments are, not only monetarywise, but we’ve heard from students who have tests or final exams involving their instrument coming up soon, and now they have nothing to play,” Lovicott said, adding that, since it appears there was forced entry, these crimes are classified as burglaries, which the Police Department is making it a priority to solve.
“We’re asking our community to keep their eyes and ears open for us,” he said.
