Video: Thief steals $4,000 guitar from area music shop

Have you seen this guitar? (Courtesy of Alexandria Music Company)

A local music store is looking for the public’s help in returning a rare guitar taken during a brazen theft last month.

A man, seen in the video below, walked into the Alexandria Music Company on July 25 and strolled out the door with a $4,000 Fender Walnut Top Artisan Stratocaster. Store owner Roger Kronstedt said the perpetrator entered during business hours and waited for an employee to step out of the room.

“It’s kind of one of those by-chance things,” Kronstedt said, who has owned the store, located in the Belle View Shopping Center, since 1994.

The guitar had been on display for about eight months, Kronstedt said. The Fairfax Police fingerprinted the store after the theft and have reviewed the video.

Kronstedt said the man in the video has also stolen equipment from other music stores in the area. He’s hopeful that the video and the thief’s apparently high rate of criminal activity will lead to his arrest.

“The more you steal, the more you’re probably going to get caught,” Kronstedt said.