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SALT LAKE CITY — Police are looking for an expensive and one-of-a-kind violin that was stolen from the University of Utah.
On June 16, the thief was caught on surveillance video going into Gardner Hall, taking the violin, putting it in black garbage bags and leaving with it.
John Shin, the owner of the violin, said he left it in the room where he was practicing to pick up a catering order.
University of Utah Campus Police Sgt. Garth Smith said, "When he came back, it was gone.”
Smith said the violin was made by a local craftsman and is worth a lot of money.
“It’s a handmade Scott Brown violin ," Smith said. "The violin has a case that’s carbon fiber so it’s very unique."
Shin said his job as an intern required that he leave to get lunches for a group of workshop participants. Leaving instruments in the hall is commonplace among many musicians, he said, and he considered the building secure.
"I am ... positive that many musicians leave their instrument within the hall during their breaks," Shin wrote in an email to KSL News. "My violin was not the only instrument that was in there that day. There were other instruments and far more appraised items."
Shin listed some of the instrument's distinctive characteristics on SlippedDisc.com.
"The label inside the instrument shows the serial number, 'No. 26,' the crafted date, '2011,' and also the luthier, 'Scott Brown,'" he wrote. "The instrument case is 'BAM high-tech contoured case' and the material is carbon fiber."
The thief is described as a Caucasian man, about 6 feet tall, with brown hair and a beard. Anyone who might recognize him is asked to call U. Campus Police at 801-585-2677.
