Tom Petty, Heartbreakers Offer Reward For Stolen Guitars

Apparently not everyone loves Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The members of the beloved rock band were practicing on a soundstage in Southern California for an upcoming tour when a thief or multiple thieves snuck in and departed with five cherished and expensive guitars. Authorities were alerted as soon as the break-in was detected, but by then, the guilty had fled, leaving only heartbreak in their wake.

According to USA Today, two of the guitars belong to Petty, a Gibson SGTV Junior and a 1967 12-string blond Rickenbacker. Another, a blue Desenberg, is Mike Campbell’s, and the last two, a Fender Broadcaster and a 1967 Epiphone Sheridan, are owned by Ron Blair and Scott Thurston respectively.

The incident happened on Thursday, and the band recently put up an announcement offering seventy-five hundred dollars for the safe return of the instruments without any second questions. Apparently, they’re not looking to press charges or punish so much as simply get back what is rightfully theirs.

Like stolen artwork, rare guitars can often be difficult to sell to pawn shops, especially after a well-publicized theft. So, unless the guilty took the instruments for personal use or specifically for a collector, it might be a long time before they can be unloaded. Until then, authorities will no doubt continue hunting for the missing treasure.

Regardless of whether the guitars are returned or not, the guys will kick off their tour on April 18th. They’d just much rather do so with their favorite supports in tow.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.