BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK/KBFX) — A guitar tied to Bakersfield country music legend Buck Owens has been recovered after it was stolen from a car this week and later turned up at a local pawn shop.
A guitar tied to Buck Owens was recovered at a pawn shop after a theft investigation in Bakersfield. The owner, Dianne Sharman, says this was a miracle. KBAK/KBFX
The red, white, and blue guitar had been donated by the Buck Owens family to a nonprofit led by Dianne Sharman.
Sharman said it was intended to be signed by people interviewed for a documentary about the Bakersfield Sound.
“The Buck Owens family donated this to our nonprofit, to have all of the people who were interviewed and were a part of the documentary, to autograph it,” Sharman said.
Sharman said the guitar was connected to a video documentary titled “Treble and Twang. The music that came out of Bakersfield.”
The theft happened Tuesday evening after Sharman brought the guitar to Bakersfield for a library program called “Boots, Books, and Buck” at the Beale Memorial Library.
Sharman said she had used the guitar as a prop during story time and then rushed to pack up as rain started to fall.
After leaving the library, Sharman and her husband stopped for dinner at a restaurant on Union Avenue.
Sharman said she believed her car was locked, but when they returned, she realized it was not.
“I said, Oh, my gosh, Mark, my car is unlocked,” Sharman said.
She said the rear lift gate was partially open.
“I opened it up the full way, and the red, white, and blue guitar, in its case, was gone. My little record player that I played the 45 records of Buck Owens, was gone,” she said.
Sharman said she became emotional when she realized the items were missing.
“I started crying, because this was a part of our efforts to save the history of the Bakersfield Sound,” she said.
Sharman said the couple went to the Bakersfield Police Department and were told to file a report online before distributing flyers publicly.
Sharman said she worried that waiting to complete the report would take too long.
A guitar tied to Buck Owens was recovered at a pawn shop after a theft investigation in Bakersfield. The owner, Dianne Sharman, says this was a miracle.
KBAK/KBFX
“But I knew the hour drive home to do that and to get back to town. It might be too late,” Sharman said. “And so I just told Mark, my husband, we need to drop these off at the pawn shops.”
Instead, the couple drove to pawn shops around Bakersfield, showing flyers with photos of the guitar and its case and explaining its significance.
At their last stop, Bakersfield Best Pawn Shop on 6th Avenue, Sharman said an employee named “Collin” told them he would alert others.
“He said, ‘I will make sure everybody in the pawn shop sees this,’ and if it’s brought in, we definitely will contact you,” Sharman said.
Sharman said Collin called a short time later to say the people who had taken the guitar were in the shop and that police had been called.
Sharman said she and her husband returned and arrived about 10 to 15 minutes later.
“When we arrived, the police were there, and they had the suspects under arrest,” Sharman said.
Sharman said the guitar was recovered in perfect condition.
She said she had not yet completed the online police report at the time it was recovered, but planned to submit it.
Sharman said police asked whether she wanted to press charges, and she decided she would.
Sharman said the guitar will continue to be used at community events to share the history of the Bakersfield Sound.
She said it is expected to be displayed on May 14 at the Beale Memorial Library at 10 a.m.