Interesting story... didn't know if anyone else saw.  Found it just now on CNN.com just now:


Fans find Peter Yarrow's guitar on eBay

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Fans of Peter, Paul & Mary know a hot guitar when they see one.

A handmade Larrivee acoustic guitar owned by Peter Yarrow disappeared on a flight from Washington to Fort Lauderdale in December 2000. It looked like it was gone for good until something like it surfaced on an eBay auction.

Browsers recognized the six-string guitar and notified eBay and Yarrow. The online auction company canceled the auction and e-mailed law enforcement. Within an hour Monday, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orijuela said, agents found the guitar in the Miami suburb of Sunny Isles Beach.

"I'm very delighted, and so is Puff the Magic Dragon," Yarrow said.

Arrangements for returning the guitar hadn't been made, but Yarrow was anxious to get back his beloved instrument.

"It's an old friend you know, and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival," the 66-year-old singer said Tuesday while traveling from Washington to New York. "It was a real loss at the time, but ultimately I accepted it, and now I have the joy of its return and I'm more than pleasantly surprised. I'm overjoyed."

The guitar, made in 1973, was in a case bearing Yarrow's name when it disappeared. A $500 reward for its recovery went unclaimed. Larrivee's custom guitars sell for $10,000 and up.

Yarrow said it was the Canadian guitar maker's first guitar with steel strings, and it was a favorite for concerts, recordings, protest marches and even a visit to the White House.

"You don't make music on other guitars like you do on this," he said. "It's got its own personality and it has that history and it knows it."

Yarrow never named the guitar but was thinking about calling it G.B., short for Gracious Boomerang.

At his request, no criminal charges will be filed. The man auctioning the guitar told agents that he was "doing a favor for a friend of a friend of a friend" and gave the names of everyone involved, Orijuela said.

Peter, Paul & Mary, known for songs such as "If I Had a Hammer" and "Puff, The Magic Dragon," canceled the opening concerts on a tour this year after Mary Travers underwent chemotherapy for leukemia late last year, but Yarrow said he will take the recovered guitar on a planned spring tour.

link:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/0...r.ap/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/02/yarrow.guitar.ap/index.html)

Hmmmm....

Didn't know it was missing!

:P  

I can understand Peter requesting no criminal charges be filed, but I'm surprised some hungry D.A. wouldn't pursue it anyhow.  That case seems like a duckshoot, and as a public policy matter--to discourage sales of stolen goods--it probably ought to be prosecuted.

Just because Yarrow isn't pressing charges doesn't mean the D.A. won't.  A crime is a crime is a crime.  Yarrow's happy he got his Larry back, but I'll bet the D.A. doesn't give a flip.

Glad to see a happy ending to the story  :D  

 

Glad to hear Pete is going to get his larrivee back.  personally i'd like to see the crook(s) get charged to the full extent.

QuoteI can understand Peter requesting no criminal charges be filed, but I'm surprised some hungry D.A. wouldn't pursue it anyhow.  That case seems like a duckshoot, and as a public policy matter--to discourage sales of stolen goods--it probably ought to be prosecuted.

True, but I work for the Florida State Courts System, and knowing something about the criminal caseload in the Miami/Dade area, I would think it's pretty doubtful that the state attorney will go out of his or her way to prosecute this, especially given the request not to - they simply have more than they can handle already.  A huge proportion of their current cases will receive higher priority anyway, as they involve drug-related and/or violent crimes.  Just my $.02 and I could certainly be wrong.

Frank, you're probably right -- and that's unfortunate. IMHO