A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

Inside job? Maybe?


https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... sweetwater

Of course it's an inside job. Unless they kept the guitar outside... in which case I'd question the full alleged value

very fishy. hope they are recovered

The really shocking thing about this story is that thirteen Gibson's is worth $95,000.

$95,000 ÷ 13 = $7306 each

toomanycats wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 6:51 pm The really shocking thing about this story is that thirteen Gibson's is worth $95,000.

$95,000 ÷ 13 = $73.06 each

They were silverbursts so I fixed the price for you!

toomanycats wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 6:51 pm The really shocking thing about this story is that thirteen Gibson's is worth $95,000.

$95,000 ÷ 13 = $7306 each

If someone asked me to guess how many guitars were stolen, I would've bet the under.

Who's Adam Jones?

The pallet could have been on the tail of the truck and it's the first thing the thieves took.

mozz wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:29 pm The pallet could have been on the tail of the truck and it's the first thing the thieves took.

Then here's hoping they promptly return it once they realize it's silverbursts

Gergo wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 6:07 pm Inside job? Maybe?


https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... sweetwater

Yeah I would be surprised if it wasn't an inside job. To be fair, the real thieves are Gibson for trying to charge what they do in the first place for this guitar.

Also the numbers kinda don't make sense here, from what I recall these guitars were $6K a piece...$95K divided by 13 comes out to over $7,300 a piece.

I'm thinking a larger inside job of not low level employees of Sweetwater or trucking company but Sweetwater itself. Senior executive in-charge-of blah blah blah stuff.
Those silverbursts are buried and 13 x $6k guitars have an insurance value of $95k. Refund the pre-order buyers $78k, $1k to the grandson of the vice president in-charge-of shipping's grandson (who is starting at the ground floor in receiving) for reporting the pallet missing=&16k profit.

[/conspiracy]

There were more than one version of that guitar on the truck. There's a $5,999 version and a $9,999 variant (I found this when I was looking up who Adam Jones is):

"Shortly after the guitar’s launch, the entire run sold out. Now it looks like someone(s) was so desperate to get their hands on the instrument, they stole a whole pallet of them. 13 of Jones’ guitars are missing after a pallet was stolen out of a Sweetwater Music truck. Of those 13 guitars, four of them are the version that retails for $9,999. The theft occurred on Oct. 30 at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, Indiana."

I don't know what makes a factory-made guitar worth even $6,000, so I have no idea why anyone would pay $10,000 for one.

Especially a silverburst.

Mossman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:25 pm Who's Adam Jones?

Just some kid on your lawn, pay no attention. Somewhat surprising that you don't know who it is as a bass player.

uwmcscott wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:06 pm

Mossman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:25 pm Who's Adam Jones?

Just some kid on your lawn, pay no attention. Somewhat surprising that you don't know who it is as a bass player.

I'm not a Tool fan, so I don't know any of the band members' names. Besides, I thought he was a guitarist?

slowhand84 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:34 pm To be fair, the real thieves are Gibson for trying to charge what they do in the first place for this guitar.

then again, someone's paying what they charge

If it was packed neaar the back door, Check who loaded the truck. Or maybe the theif is lucky he didnt grab a pallet full of ladygug/OK-Kitty guitars.

Gear_Junky wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:34 pm then again, someone's paying what they charge

True dat. People camp out and wait in line to get the next $1500 cell phone. $75,000 SUV/trucks drive off car lots by the hundreds every day, and kids having multiple $100 plus pairs of tennis shoes is a pretty common experience. Despite all the doom and gloom lately, there's a ridiculous amount of disposable income out there so $6500 guitars selling regularly should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Thinking about this story.

The theft occurred on Oct. 30, though not actually at Sweetwater. It happened at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, Indiana. the location of Sweetwater and the Flying J where the theft occurred are 139 miles apart.

So it's not like the theft occurred inside Sweetwater, or at their loading dock, or even on their property. If it was an inside job, and the thieves had any brains, you'd think that they would stage the heist some distance away from Sweetwater.

The fact that 13 guitars worth $95,000 was stolen leads me to believe that the thieves knew what they were stealing, that it wasn't just random luck. Let's say that those thirteen guitars were Gibson Les Paul Standards valued at $2500 a piece. That's only $32,500.
Or say they were American Strats valued at $1500 each, which would have been $19,500.
Thirteen Squiers might only be worth a couple grand.
But nope, they knew where to go for the big bucks.

My other question is, how does one even unload 13 stolen, expensive, easily recognizable and identifiable Gibsons? You can't just turn around and list them on Reverb.

Here's a crazy thought: Could this possibly be a publicity stunt? Here we are all now talking about this story, hyping it up. I'm researching and writing about it, when I don't particularly like TOOL and would never buy that guitar. We've even made @Mickey aware of it when he clearly has no interest in the guitars whatsoever. The guitars make their way back to Gibson and are recycled, or are mysteriously "found" somewhere. No harm done, but now everyone knows that there's a new Adam Jones guitar available and everyone wants it. Nawwww . . . that's pretty thin.


Here are some videos of where the theft occurred, the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, Indiana:

Thieves don't have to pass any test, be licensed, etc.
I remember back in the 1980's Ned Ray McWherter was governor of Tennessee. In real life he owned a trucking company.
While he was governor, some thieves backed a semi up to a trailer at a loading dock in Murfreesboro, hooked up & drove off.
(The trailer was sitting there waiting to be unloaded come daylight.)
As it happened, that trailer belonged to McWherter Trucking & within a matter of minutes every law enforcement officer in Tennessee was looking for it.
They were caught before they got to their exit on I-40.

This is an interesting story, but here's what I want to know:

1. Yeah, it takes some muscle and time to unload a pallet of anything. Did no one notice this "transfer" occurring in the parking lot? Cameras?

2. If you've got that ^ much muscle, only one pallet stolen definitely looks planned and targeted, AND that it was near/at the rear of the truck. WHY would you load the most expensive part of the load at the rear. I'm assuming, possibly wrongly so, that this was on a semi.

3.OK, maybe it wasn't a semi. In that case it would have been a smaller truck and not have been parked out in the semi portion of the lot. IOW closer in to the building. If that's the case, it's even more likely that SOMEbody saw it happen, OR that a camera picked it up. OK, not a question.

As to how you would unload these. They would go to rich "collectors" who would probably put them in cases. I think at least some of them will be recovered.

mickey wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 6:44 am Thieves don't have to pass any test, be licensed, etc.
I remember back in the 1980's Ned Ray McWherter was governor of Tennessee. In real life he owned a trucking company.
While he was governor, some thieves backed a semi up to a trailer at a loading dock in Murfreesboro, hooked up & drove off.
(The trailer was sitting there waiting to be unloaded come daylight.)
As it happened, that trailer belonged to McWherter Trucking & within a matter of minutes every law enforcement officer in Tennessee was looking for it.
They were caught before they got to their exit on I-40.

The lesson here is that you do not mess with a truck load of beer owned by a guy named Ned Ray.

toomanycats wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:25 am

The lesson here is that you do not mess with a truck load of beer owned by a guy named Ned Ray.

Are you serious? I never knew it was beer!?!

Ned Ray was a "Boss Hogg" type character. Except he was over 6'6" and 300 pounds (or as the Brits would say over 21 stone. )

mickey wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 6:44 am SOME thieves don't have to pass any test, be licensed, etc.

FIFY - they have not cancelled licensing for lawyers, doctors and certain other practitioners

mickey wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:42 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:25 am

The lesson here is that you do not mess with a truck load of beer owned by a guy named Ned Ray.

Are you serious? I never knew it was beer!?!

Ned Ray was a "Boss Hogg" type character. Except he was over 6'6" and 300 pounds (or as the Brits would say over 21 stone. )

Well, I did I little research. Very interesting and colorful character this guy Ned Ray. From Wikipedia his son Mike Ray McWherter at present operates the family's beer distribution business in Jackson Tennessee. I suppose I just assumed his father was running the same business back in the 80s. Whether it's true or not it sure makes a good story, doesn't it?

toomanycats wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 9:55 am

mickey wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:42 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:25 am

The lesson here is that you do not mess with a truck load of beer owned by a guy named Ned Ray.

Are you serious? I never knew it was beer!?!

Ned Ray was a "Boss Hogg" type character. Except he was over 6'6" and 300 pounds (or as the Brits would say over 21 stone. )

Well, I did I little research. Very interesting and colorful character this guy Ned Ray. From Wikipedia his son Mike Ray McWherter at present operates the family's beer distribution business in Jackson Tennessee. I suppose I just assumed his father was running the same business back in the 80s. Whether it's true or not it sure makes a good story, doesn't it?

Speaking of truck's full of beer, colorful characters and stealing stuff]


The guitar tie in is there too....