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Man steals his stolen trumpets back

Posted at 11:37 PM, Apr 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-09 02:37:31-04
A valley man toots his own horn as he tells 13 Action News his crazy story. Lance Aguirre's trumpet and flugelhorn were stolen from him, and after he hunted them down, he stole them back!
 
Lance Aguirre has been playing his flugelhorn for 35 years. It's an antique worth $1,200.
 
Last weekend, Aguirre played his horns at church, went to play golf, and then went to the casino to watch basketball with friends.
 
When he was done, he walked outside to his car, and as he was putting his key in, he noticed a bottle of valve oil on his car seat.
 
"I knew immediately, I went oh no, and I looked back where I had my trumpet case and it was gone!"
 
That's when Aguirre noticed his sun roof was open.
 
So Aguirre took to Facebook to try and get help from friends. He checked out the local pawn shops and posted an add on Craig's List. His hopes were high but his expectations were low.
 
"So Monday I got a couple messages from people saying, is this your horn?"
 
Aguirre checked out the Craig's List ad and says at first he was skeptical but then turned pretty confident that it was his trumpet.
 
Aguirre and his buddy came up with a plan to coordinate with the Craig's List poster and meet up with him at Walgreens.
 
"I'm walking up and I go, do you have a trumpet? And he goes, oh yes, it's back here. And I just happened to glance and I see the bag just like that and I see the knob up and I went like this and I grabbed up and I saw both trumpets," said Aguirre. "The horn I was looking for was in here and he's grabbing me like this and we're fighting! And then I pushed him into this (the car door) and he went that way and he came back at me and when he went to grab it, I'm sorry, but I said, hey dumb***, this is mine."
 
So like any trumpet player's reaction, Aguirre pulled out his horn and played, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, as the thief drove away.
 
Even though this worked for Aguirre, police do not recommend you try it. They warn us of the obvious - the possibility the person is armed.