Auwe someone stole uke from the vendors area...looking for a pikake koaloha

MGM

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
Messages
1,840
Reaction score
12
So sad to hear that Eileen who has the Kanikapila company and runs the great Wine Country Ukulele festival in Napa had a pikake soprano taken from her booth yesterday...Shame on whoever the culprit is....maybe they will get nonbuyers remorse and it will reappear...If not the God's of Pele will reign upon them/..
 
Does she have any pictures of it? If so, post them and everyone on UU can keep an eye out for it showing up for sale.
 
Hey there, Elaine, here. I don't have any pictures of the actual uke that was stolen, but here's a similar one from the KoAloha website: soprano-pikake-001.jpg

The general consensus seemed to be that it's probably sitting in some pawn shop in Reno. Looks like I should have gone to the Hayward Festival instead......
 
That's awful that someone would (or even could) steal an ukulele from an ukulele festival. Given the number of pawn shops in Reno, one would think that the Reno Police would be accustomed to stolen property showing up at pawn shops and would have a system in place to alert area pawn shops that someone may come in with stolen property.
 
My experience is limited to one state in the US but from what I've seen, law enforcement unfortunately doesn't generally have the time or manpower to work with pawn shops that closely, and there are plenty of pawn shop owners who see cops as an impediment to business. The only things we ever really looked into in pawn shops were the handguns.
 
Last edited:
Okay, now that is just not cool at all.

Gotta hope for some sort of karmic revenge, or maybe that the bad bachi will get them later.
 
that is so shameful, we have always prided ourselves to be an honourable community, clearly a case for Reno 911(sorry).
 
That stinks!
 
This has been reported to the Sparks police, case # 12SP02904. We'll see what happens. (Security at the Nugget was pretty disinterested.)

A number of people are keeping an eye out on CraigsList and eBay. Besides being a KoALoha soprano pikake, it had a date stamp on the label in the sound hole: August 2011. The more eyes the better. Thank you.

Frankly, I'm still a little shocked and very disappointed that the festival organizers didn't do anything (nada...nothing) to recover this the minute they heard it had been stolen, which was within minutes of the fact. A general announcement at the very least might have increased the chances of recovering it significantly and catching the culprit. It was the only KoAloha pikake at the festival......

Thanks, however, go out to everyone else for their concern and help.

I'll keep you posted.

Elaine
 
Since the thief isn't going to speak up, I think the event organizers should. People need to remember their disinterest before booking the trip next year.
 
Would not there be security cameras at such an event? I'd think that facility would have a bunch!
 
A serial number in the original post might be of some use .
 
This brings up a good point. One problem with recovering stolen property is identification. Just because a KoAloha shows up in a pawn shop or is found elsewhere does not mean you would get the item returned. Everyone should keep track of serial numbers and any other identifying marks on your instruments that could say with certainty that the item is yours - photgraphs of any unique features that help in identification would be a plus. It may not be a bad idea to mark the item with your initials in an area hidden from view. Without that, the police may not release a piece of property to you just because you claim it is yours but have no further proof.
 
If this info is of any help, there seems to be a (new) class of people who go to festivals and liberate items that are of value in resale to a particular community. Last year, someone went to a large wool and fiber festival (for knitters, weavers and spinners) and stole a popular spinning wheel out of a vendor booth. It then turned up on a local Craigslist or some other list frequented by people with SAS (spinning wheel acquisition syndrome....)

The best bet is to scan CL or online communities where a uke might be sold for close to its true value (because these people are greedy and not just going to a pawn shop) and also put the word out to any forums like this.

The spinning wheel was sussed out by someone who realized the re-seller was someone who typically attended festivals and had their own business selling similar items. Since there was a photo of the item, people were able to ID it as the stolen item. Sadly, as it went over state lines, the authorities were unwilling to take any notice, even though it was over the limit for petty larceny.
 
This brings up a good point. One problem with recovering stolen property is identification. Just because a KoAloha shows up in a pawn shop or is found elsewhere does not mean you would get the item returned. Everyone should keep track of serial numbers and any other identifying marks on your instruments that could say with certainty that the item is yours - photgraphs of any unique features that help in identification would be a plus. It may not be a bad idea to mark the item with your initials in an area hidden from view. Without that, the police may not release a piece of property to you just because you claim it is yours but have no further proof.


ANY vendor of any sort at any show of thier product that doesn't have an accurate inventory list that includes serial numbers and photos of each piece is wide open for demise . Ukers are still made up of humans . Unfortuantely the uke alone is not an identiying mark of a quality human .

Sorry to hear and read of your loss . ALWAYS PROTECT YOURSELF !
 
Top Bottom