Stolen signed guitars worth $30,000 returned to elderly owner
Guitars, including some signed by the Eagles, KISS and Jimmy Barnes have been stolen from a Brisbane shed. (QLD Police) Supplied
More than a dozen stolen guitars signed by music legends including Jimmy Barnes, the Eagles, KISS and Chubby Checker have been recovered.
About half the collection belonging to Leonard "Merv" French, 81, vanished from a shed on his Manly West property in late August.
The theft was a targeted crime, Queensland detectives said at the time.
Mr French bought the collection from a friend as an investment after the death of his wife.
He estimated the value of the stolen instruments to be $30,000.
"The only hope they'd have of selling them is to rub all the signatures off them," he said in August.
"(And) without the signatures, they're nothing much really, they're just another guitar."
Mr French appealed for the safe return of the collection, saying the crime was an act of "low mongrels".
Police, who had been monitoring auction sites such as eBay, announced on Monday all 14 guitars had been recovered.
"Unfortunately, some of the guitars have been damaged," police said in a statement.
The instruments will be returned to Mr French at the Wynnum police station this morning.
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