NeoConMan Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Here's something pretty close to home for all of us Gibson owners and enthusiasts. Looking over the 'Lifestyle' stuff Gibson posts on the site and I noticed the story about the clown who stole the Gibson Custom Shop truck and trailer. I was just in that trailer a few weeks before that, and I've met those guys a few times. It's great Gibson does the traveling road show since so few dealers stock such high-end guitars. So I was reading the story as Gibson posted it. http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/illinois-man-pleads-guilty-311/ I had to chuckle about the way the prosecutor and defense lawyer made their points, the quotes they made. Read on, see what YOU think. Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing Custom Shop Truck, Trailer & 32 Guitars A Highland, Ind., man recently pled guilty to stealing the Gibson Custom Shop Traveling Exhibit from the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel in Naperville, Ill., in Sept. ’07. The truck and trailer contained 32 Custom guitars valued at more than $100,000 — that is, before Mark A. Carrothers hotwired and stole the rig, emptied it of its contents and dumped it in an industrial park where police found it a day later. Carrothers faced up to 15 years in prison, but was sentenced with 90 days in jail, four years of probation and 250 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay $19,000 in restitution for guitars that were not recovered. The Chicago Sun Times reports that Carrothers told the judge, “I know right from wrong. I will not make any excuses for my behavior. It was a mistake, and I have learned a valuable lesson in humility, which I probably needed.” Carrothers’ defense attorney Brian Telander asked for leniency for his client because he helped police to recover the majority of the guitars from Chicago's Chinatown area, doesn’t have a serious criminal past and has children to support. He also pointed out that Carrothers is a recovering alcoholic who has sponsored others through their own sobriety. According to Chicago’s Daily Herald, Assistant State Attorney Mary Cronin argued for a prison term instead of the 90 days of work release Carrothers was given. “It’s not like [Carrothers] fell off the wagon and did it out of desperation for the money,” Cronin said. “He’s just a thief.” When an anonymous tip tied him to the crime, Carrothers at first denied taking part but confessed after seeing surveillance footage of his Ford Explorer in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. Surveillance cameras also caught the Custom Shop rig breezing through a toll booth and then again in the parking lot where it was eventually abandoned. Though the rig was stolen nearly two years ago, the Gibson Traveling Exhibit Representative who drives it remembers it like yesterday. He has now been on the job for six years — toting around the Custom Shop’s 40-foot trailer to roughly 50 music and dealer events a year — but never has he experienced such a brazen crime. The night the theft occurred, the Gibson rep says he parked the Custom Shop truck and trailer in the Cracker Barrel parking lot across from the hotel where he stayed the night. “The night the rig was stolen I found a place to park under a big light,” recalls the rep.“The trailer has an alarm on it so I set the alarm, and I got a call from the alarm company about 12:30 in the morning saying the alarm was going off. I walk out of my hotel room, still on the phone with the alarm company, and I’m like,‘Holy crap, I swear I parked it here.’ The whole rig was gone. The truck and the trailer.” When police recovered both the truck and trailer a day later in a nearby parking lot, they found that the truck had been hotwired, all the guitars removed and various tables and other items ransacked. “They cracked open the doors with a crow bar or something because there was some damage to the doors,” says the rep.“When we found it the next morning, the doors were wide open.” Carrothers never gave up the names of his two accomplices. The guy got off light in my opinion. I can only imagine if those 32 guitars belonged to ME. I'd still be trying to find them while he was busy robbing the next guy on his list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max2343 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Wow an Unbelievable story and man he got off-------Easy. Wonder what he did with them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted March 11, 2009 Author Share Posted March 11, 2009 I personally held most of those guitars in my hands, played several of them for some time. I can imagine how proud the new 'owners' must be. I never did hear how badly damaged the recovered guitars were. There was no room in that trailer for all the cases, imagine 32 naked guitars thrown into a Ford Explorer together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Allen Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 If those had been my guitars, I'd have formed a posse. Frontier justice for that guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I remember when that happened... I always wondered what happened. I remember ther were some irreplaceable guitars on that truck... Did they get them back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted March 12, 2009 Author Share Posted March 12, 2009 Most were recovered, I never saw a list of what is still missing. Said they were valued over $100,000 and the guy is on the line for $19,000 in restitution. Much of that money may be for damages to the truck and trailer though, you know they wouldn't miss a dime there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 He should be in jail with OJ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flight959 Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 “It’s not like [Carrothers] fell off the wagon and did it out of desperation for the money,” Cronin said. “He’s just a thief.” String the fcuker up! A thief is a thief.... Regardless of what he stole! The sooner these goody two shoe idiots in their ivory towers get robbed blind themselfs .....the better! Flight959 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLiveSoundGuy Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Guess they never heard of Lo-Jack. Maybe he shoulda' used the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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