An electric cello stolen from an American couple’s vehicle while they were staying at a motel in Williams Lake has been returned.
Rita Rice of Weatherford, Texas, said she and her husband hadn’t heard anything from authorities after they reported the instrument missing on Aug. 23.
Read more: Visiting U.S. couple heartbroken after cello stolen from vehicle
“We had pretty well given up on it, and then I got a phone call from a man who said he’d seen some guy with it and heard about it and gave him some money for it,” Rice told Black Press Media in an interview from Texas.
“It all sounded a little weird, but I could tell he had the cello because I asked him a couple of details to make sure. It has a bow with red carbon fibre so it is a little bit distinctive.”
Rice said she then called the Williams Lake RCMP and an officer volunteered to pick it up and ship it to them.
“I really want to thank the RCMP for going out of their way,” Rice said. “I don’t know if we would have got anything like that kind of service here in Texas. Them volunteering to go pick up the stolen item — that’s amazing.”
Rice mailed the tipster the $200 reward they had offered for the cello’s return.
“I’m so excited it made its way back to us,” Rice said. “It gives you a little faith. Everything was there and my husband has started to play it again.”
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