PORTLAND, Ore. — In early March, a local musician was out thousands of dollars after someone broke into his North Portland studio and stole several rare and vintage guitars among other music recording equipment. But, thanks to an old receipt and social media, Collin Hegna has been able to recover most of all of it.
Nearly two weeks after his studio was broken into and vandalized, Hegna's luck started to turn. One of his most priced guitars that was stolen, a 1960's Fender Jaguar, popped up on Offer Up, an online marketplace. He placed a bid and tried to contact the seller, with no success.
But then, the person who ended up buying the guitar tracked him down.
“A little later that day, I was contacted by the person who ended up buying it," Hegna said. "They ... found a sales slip from when I got some work done on the guitar."
It had Hegna's name and phone numbers on it.
Then, later that day, right when Hegna was thinking that's the only piece of equipment he was going to get back, he got a message.
“I heard from another person who has seen my posts on social media and had seen the news coverage about my gear and they said they knew where the rest of my gear was,” he said.
It wasn’t much long after that, when the rest of Hegna's equipment was dropped off to him. Hegna said he didn’t ask any questions; he was just glad to finally get his guitars back in one piece.
The only piece of equipment Hegna hasn't recovered yet is his computer that held many of his projects, but Portland Police is still investigating.