RCMP recover B.C. country musician’s irreplaceable guitar 15 years after theft

A Canadian country musician has been reunited with an irreplaceable guitar, 15 years after it was stolen.

In 2007, someone broke into Mitch Merrett’s storage locker in Surrey, B.C., and made off with 14 guitars worth about $25,000.

One of the guitars, however, was priceless — it was gifted to him by his father.

Surrey and Ridge Meadows RCMP and Vancouver police were able to recover five of the guitars at the time, but the sentimental instrument remained lost.

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Earlier this month, Merrett called police after he spotted what he believed was the guitar at a Vancouver pawn shop.

Surrey RCMP’s community response unit confirmed the guitar was Merrett’s the following day and seized it.

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“It is like getting a piece of my soul back,” Merrett said in a police media release.

Mounties said Friday that seven of Merrett’s guitars remain unaccounted for, and that anyone who inadvertently bought a guitar they think may have been stolen should contact Surrey RCMP.