Musician, stolen bass making music again

SANTA FE (KRQE) - For more than 10 years a local musician has been mourning the loss of something special, a premium guitar--a gift from his dad--that he thought was long gone.

But with the help of the Internet and the Santa Fe Police Department, his sad story has suddenly changed its tune.

Musician Donny Tesso plays with some popular New Mexico musicians.  It’s how he makes his living and includes working and performing in a band with his daughters.

But along with his girls, he had another baby, a 1975 Fender bass guitar given to him by his father.

In 2001, someone broke into Tesso’s home and cleaned it out making off with the old Fender.  Tesso filled out a police report and never thought he’d get it back.

But Wednesday night he was looking on Craigslist website and saw something familiar.

“The picture popped up and I said, 'No.  This can’t be!” Tesso said.

That’s where SFPD Officer Jeff Worth comes in.  He called the guy who posted the guitar for sale on Craigslist and said he wanted to look at the old Fender.

The serial numbers matched.

“We deal with so many things whether it’s guns, bicycles, instruments that have serial numbers," Worth said.  "People don’t write them down.

"I would venture to say one in 10 people don’t write down their serial number."

But because Tesso did, police took the guitar.  Wednesday afternoon, more than a decade after it was stolen, Tesso was reunited with his Fender.

“Without a doubt, without a doubt, reunited, and it feels so good,” Tesso said.

Now police are trying to follow the trail and how the guitar ended up in the hands of the guy on Craigslist.  They say he may be a crime victim, too, not knowing he purchased a guitar that was stolen more than a decade ago.