‘Sorry, I been drunk’: mandolin thief has second thoughts and returns his haul
26 January 2026, 16:39
The apologetic thief brought the vintage mandolins back to their owner in carrier bags.
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Two vintage mandolins worth thousands of dollars were safely returned to a New Jersey specialist string shop last month after a “drunk” thief dropped them at the door with a note saying sorry.
Lark Street Music in Teaneck, New Jersey, a well-respected vintage fretted instruments shop, reported just before Christmas that a Gibson F‑12 mandolin and a Weber Yellowstone had been spirited away. CCTV footage showed a man slipping both instruments into his coat before walking out.
Lark Street Music owner Bernard ‘Buzzy’ Levine said he only realised the instruments were gone later when he noticed two empty spaces on the mandolin wall.
The missing instruments we carved‑top Gibson F‑12, priced at $3,500, and a Weber Yellowstone, priced at $4,250. Levine posted the CCTV footage and instrument details to his shop’s Facebook page and asked the local community to help track them down.
Read more: Musician’s priceless instrument collection stolen including 61 violin bows
“How to steal 2 mandolins at the same time! Be on the lookout for this criminal and the Gibson F-12 #A2985 and a Weber Yellowstone #9360302,” the post read. The clip went viral.
Levine is no stranger to media attention – some of his instruments were used in the recent Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.
Within days of posting, Levine revealed that the instruments had been returned in two shopping bags with a handwritten note that read: “SORRY, I BEEN DRUNK, MERRY CHRISTMAS You are good man.”
Levine told ABC News the experience was like “some kind of weird movie that has a happy ending or something”.
The instruments remain in police custody as evidence and no arrests have been made.
