Thieves Make Off With Schools’ Musical Instruments

What’s been taking place in band rooms recently isn’t music to anyone’s ears.

“I feel violated. We’ve got close to 200 kids, and they work so hard and they’re actually going to Europe in April and they’ve been practicing, and to have something like that happen is always a tragedy,” father and band booster Bill Noble said.

Early Saturday morning, a break in at the Palm Springs High School choir and band room left a few valuables missing.

“They managed to get one of our electric basses, a laptop, and another guitar,” Palm Springs band director Brian Ingelson said.

Thieves are targeting band rooms all over southern California, looking for valuable items, leaving band departments struggling to stay on their feet.

“The economic situation is terrible here in California, and when you are now faced with having to replace equipment that’s stolen, it makes it 10 times harder,” Ingelson said.

People speculate the high value of instrument metal attracts thieves.

Or could the string of tuba thefts in LA be trying to trickle down to the desert? At $4,000 each, it makes sense.

Experts say southern California’s recently popular banda, a popular type of Latino music, may be at fault. Tuba payers, the stars of banda, can earn more than $100 an hour.

“It’s very expensive, people don’t realize. My son’s trumpet alone cost $1,200,” Noble said.

“We work so hard to raise money just to have the basics that we need. And for someone to be that low, to steal from children, is just deplorable,” Ingelson said.

Ingelson said thieves have got it all wrong, though.

“Schools are not depositories of money and definitely here in California we don’t have the latest and greatest, but we take care of the things we do have,” he said.

Ingelson said now, they’ll take even better care of the sounds to avoid silence.