Inept Guitar Burglars

[alewis41]

Two Concord residents were arrested on suspicion of stealing $70,000 worth of rare guitars Friday from a music shop in Tiburon, police said.
Douglas Chris Knudtson Jr., a 39-year-old parolee-at-large, and Shannon Cooper, 39, were stopped in their rental car minutes after the break-in at Schoenberg Guitars on Ark Row.

Inside the vehicle, police found a laptop showing a Google map of Tiburon with the guitar store's address in the search window, said Tiburon police Sgt. Shane Ford.
The burglary occurred around 3 a.m. Friday, when the door to the shop was kicked in. As Tiburon police responded, a Belvedere officer reported that he had noticed an unfamiliar Chevrolet HHR in the neighborhood earlier that night.

Police stopped the Chevrolet about two minutes later as it was headed for the freeway. Inside were Knudtson, Cooper, the guitars, suspected methamphetamine and suspected burglary tools, Ford said.

Both suspects have lengthy criminal histories, and Knudtson was being sought by authorities for failing to report to his parole officer, Ford said.

"He had burglary convictions going back 25 years," he said.

The guitars were taken into evidence pending the outcome of the case. Eric Schoenberg, the owner of the music store, said the instruments were a 1919 Martin, a 1933 Martin and a 1987 Martin.

"They're pretty valuable. They're kind of the Stradivarius of guitars," Schoenberg said. "This is not a good town to break into - as they found out. They were
caught, like, 100 yards down the road."

Knudtson was in custody at the Marin County Jail on Friday on various state and local holds. Cooper was released on bail pending future court hearings.

[Brian Leary]

A case for FBI