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Music to her ears, Rice University PD recovers violin
Music to her ears
Rice police recover student's valuable violin
By Mike Williams, Rice News staff
June 3, 2011
Rice University police recovered Shepherd School student Jiyeon Min's $30,000 Raffaello Bozzi violin, along with a pair of $5,000 bows, after it was stolen commencement weekend.
Quick work by the Rice University Police Department turned what could have been a devastating commencement weekend into another reason to celebrate for a young musician.
Rice University police recovered Shepherd School student Jiyeon Min's $30,000 Raffaello Bozzi violin, along with a pair of $5,000 bows, after it was stolen commencement weekend.
Jiyeon Min's $30,000 Raffaello Bozzi violin, along with a pair of $5,000 bows, went missing before her final scheduled performance as a student at the Shepherd School of Music Presidential Concert at Stude Hall May 13.
"I left it for a short while in a practice room," recalled Min, who earned her master's degree in music last month. "When I came back, it wasn't in the room. I thought my friends were playing some really evil prank. I couldn't accept the reality of it -- I thought somebody was joking."
It was no joke, however. A thief entered Alice Pratt Brown Hall and checked the rooms, taking care to close the blinds as he rifled through students' belongings.
"We were sitting on a couch in the practice building when a fellow student walked over and told us his laptop was stolen from his practice room, near ours," Min said. "There were other instruments in the room, but only mine was taken.
"It was really heartbreaking," she said.
Min immediately reported the missing violin to Rice police Officer Otis Carey. Sgt. Gary Spears, one of two department detectives, picked up the case and knew where to look first.
"The first thing we did was a pawnshop search," Spears said. "We're members of a computer database program called LeadsOnline, a way to search pawnshop transactions. Pawnshops are required by law to enter their transactions."
Rice subscribes to the service, which is free for pawnshops, and the investment has occasionally paid off in the recovery of stolen bicycles and laptop computers, Spears said.
"I gave it a whirl and searched for all violins with that brand name pawned in Texas and Louisiana over the weekend," he said. "There was only one, and it was at a pawnshop just down the street on Bissonnet. That was a pretty good clue."
The pawnshop got the valuable instrument at a bargain-basement price. "They thought it was worth about $5,000 and they paid him $200 for it. He told them it had belonged to his uncle, who passed away. It was a family heirloom and it was time to get rid of it. It was a decent story."
The suspect is known to police for previous thefts, Spears said, and a felony warrant was issued for his arrest.
Spears recovered the violin May 16, and Min, who had gone home to Atlanta, hopped a plane back to Houston that day. She was delighted enough to treat RUPD to coffee and cake as a thank you.
"It was nice to work with somebody who gets excited at the work we do, because we get excited when we have a good case," Spears said. "This, for me, is the highest-priced item I've recovered from a pawnshop. You're getting into the price of cars with a $30,000 violin. It was a big case for us."
"They did the best job," said Min, who's happy to have her instrument back in time for a busy season of summer festivals. "I really appreciated it."
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