A man accused of stealing a pair of pricey mandolins has seemingly returned the valuable instruments to a New Jersey music shop with a handwritten note that’s caught a bit of attention.
Police in Teaneck said the man captured on store surveillance video took the instruments from Lark Street Music last week.
Video shared by the store shows the brazen thief grab a mandolin off the wall, then stuff the instrument into his large winter coat. A few seconds go by, he looks around, then grabs another mandolin off the wall before walking out.
“I like, especially when he took one, he’s checking to see if I’m looking or anything,” Bernard Levine said, laughing off the bizarre robbery.
Levine took to Facebook and asked for help identifying the man in the video. After just a few days online, the same cameras that caught the theft, also captured the moment the mandolins were quietly returned.
The mandolins have a combined value of $8,000-$9,000 dollars.
“Some guy opens the door up front, stoops down and leaves,” Levine said Monday. “So I walked over there, and wow, there are the two shopping bags with the mandolin necks sticking out. And so I went outside and he was sort of trotting down the street.”
“I started running after him,” but by then it was too late, and Levine decided to call police.
When he returned to his shop and examined the mandolins, he noticed that one was slightly damaged. Also left with the instruments was a handwritten note.
“Sorry, I been drunk. Merry Christmas. You are good man,” the note read.
“I thought if I was in that position, that’s what I would probably do too, try to get out of a bad situation. Try to make amends,” Levine said.
But there was more. The owner also found chocolate tucked in the bags.
Police say, so far, there have been no arrests.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nbcnewyork.com ’
