GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro band is now short on some instruments and equipment after police said someone stole their trailer. The band was looking forward to booking more gigs after the pandemic put shows on hold for a year. However, with some gear gone, getting back to normal could take the band a little longer.
"The theft actually happened exactly one year after our last gig," Brian Tyndall of Greensboro said.
Tyndall is one of the members of the Greensboro-based band The Mantras and plays the electric bass. He said there had been a series of break-ins in the Oakland Avenue area before the trailer was stolen.
Greensboro police said the trailer belonging to the band was stolen in the early hours of March 19. The trailer was filled with band equipment and instruments, as well as camping gear worth nearly $60,000, according to the report.
Surveillance video taken from a nearby business showed a truck pulling the black trailer along Oakland Avenue.
"About five nights after the incident we received an email that just said your equipment is in a trailer in a parking lot in a church and gave me an address," Tyndall said.
They went to the address but found a different trailer hidden from view and called the police. Officers searched the trailer and found some of the band's equipment, but some items were gone.
"All of our cymbals, the percussions, and drum kits cymbals were not there. One bass amp head was not there, a guitar cabinet was not there," he said.
The band estimates $7,000 worth of damages and lost equipment.
"It feels a lot better but really strange when you walk up to a trailer that's not yours but with all your stuff in it. That was definitely awkward," Tyndall said.
The band's trailer was actually located in another county and filled with other items including a box of muddy tennis shoes, a pair of Air Jordans, and crutches.
"Randolph County Sheriff's Office seized our trailer on the property that it was at in Ashboro and then it got brought it back here to Greensboro and the police at the substation went through it," Tyndall said.
Greensboro police said they arrested a suspect in the case, 38-year-old Michael Anthony Moore of Greensboro. Moore was charged with Motor Vehicle Theft.
The band is raising money for new equipment but plans to borrow equipment as needed to get back to playing in May.