Guitar stolen at benefit concert is recovered

By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

Sheriff’s deputies recovered the $3,500 guitar that was stolen from the band Hoobastank during their recent benefit concert in Agoura Hills.

All it took was a few posts on the Internet and a confession by Lancaster, Calif. teenager Robert Crenshaw.

The guitar belonged to lead guitarist Dan Estrin of Calabasas.

Estrin reported the guitar missing following the group’s July 15 concert at The Canyon to raise money for the Alice C. Stelle Middle School in Calabasas.

He posted a message about his missing Paul Reed Smith electric guitar on the band’s Website and learned from an informant that Crenshaw, 17, and another friend were the ones who took the instrument.

"We went in the back door and we wanted to meet the band and we were walking around and my friend saw the guitar and took it," Crenshaw told The Acorn. "He took it to my house because he left (town) for a few weeks."

Before the concert began, Crenshaw said he and his friend, who wasn’t named, snuck out of the club and put the guitar in the friend’s automobile. They carried the stolen instrument back to Lancaster when the show was over.

A Canyon spokesperson said the club’s security cameras did not show the guitar being stolen. Attempts to recover the instrument went unsuccessful until information about Crenshaw and his friend surfaced on www.hoobastank.com.

Crenshaw said deputies from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station came to his home on July 22 and took him to Agoura Hills for questioning. The deputies reportedly gave the guitar back to Estrin.

"I don’t know what kind of shape it’s in and what kind of work it needs and I tried to indicate to him we certainly want to help," said Judy Burris, the concert organizer. The event raised $12,000 for the middle school.

Crenshaw said he isn’t sure if Estrin will press charges, but that he plans to apologize to the rock ’n’ roll star nevertheless.

Estrin, who was recently featured in Guitar One magazine, said that while Paul Reed Smith provides him with sponsored equipment, the stolen guitar was one that he purchased with his own money before the band became successful.

"We didn’t go (to the concert) and think we were going to take something," Crenshaw said. "We just saw it and took it. I don’t know what we were thinking. I guess we weren’t thinking at all."