Sweetwater Reports $100K Theft of Custom Guitars

Fort Wayne-based Sweetwater Sound has sounded the alarm after tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of limited-edition guitars went missing last week from a delivery truck in Johnson County.

Sweetwater says 13 custom-made Gibson guitars, valued at nearly $100,000, were stolen last Friday from a parked truck at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, a community just south of Indianapolis.

The truck was en route to Sweetwater’s headquarters in Fort Wayne when the cargo went missing.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Sweetwater Senior Vice President David Fuhr says the theft is beyond suspicious.

“At the very minimum, it’s fishy. Because with an entire truckload of Gibson guitars for somebody to open the back of the truck and pull 13 unique items off and walk away with them,” said Fuhr.

The guitars are “Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom guitar,” a limited-edition guitar from Gibson. Jones is the guitarist for the band Tool, which was popular in the 1990s.

When Gibson announced it was manufacturing the limited-edition guitars, collectors and loyal followers of Jones quickly placed pre-orders for the 100 guitars.

“There’s only a set number of them that will ever be made. Customers usually wait a year to two years to get this guitar in,” explained Fuhr. “And so, for 13 of them to disappear off of the back of the truck is just devastating for these customers.”

To make the case even more curious, Fuhr said the truck was generically branded from a delivery company it routinely uses. He says the truck markings would not provide a clue what might be inside.

“What we are convinced is that it was somebody within the music community who knew what was on that truck, and knew the value of those 13 specific boxes because they were the 13 most expensive guitars on that truck. And so somebody clearly knew what they were pulling off,” said Fuhr.

The Whiteland Police Department is handling the criminal investigation. But Fuhr says Sweetwater has its own security team looking for the stolen merchandise.  As of Thursday evening, the company already had leads on several of the stolen guitars.

“We’ve already seen three show up on a reselling site. And we’re working with that company to get hold of those first three. So we know they’re out there. We know somebody has them and is trying to sell them and we’re trying to put our hands on them,” said Fuhr.

Fuhr says investigators are looking at online third-party sellers where items like this would likely be sold.

“People really don’t send something like this to a pawn shop, that’s not the first place you’ll go. You’ll go to an online retailer, where it’ll get plenty of eyes,” said Fuhr. “The music retail world is a very tight-knit close group of people. So even our competitors are now aware. Everybody’s looking for this product.”

Anyone with information about the guitars is asked to call the Whiteland Police Department at (317) 535-8100.