NOISY recover stolen band kit after spotting it in online auction
The band organised a "sting" to retrieve the stolen items from the online seller
Upcoming rock band NOISY have recovered their stolen band equipment after they saw it up for sale in an online auction.
The Worthing-based trio, who have supported the likes of Yungblud and You Me At Six, said they were “excited and relieved” to have their kit returned after £25,000 worth was stolen from a van in Walthamstow early last month.
After finding the items up for sale in an online auction, they managed to locate and recover everything.
The equipment was stolen in the first week of September, shortly after playing Reading and Leeds and All Points East at the end of this summer’s festival season.
Speaking to the BBC, NOISY guitarist and keyboardist Connor Cheetham said: “We left the van parked outside our tour manager’s house in Walthamstow.
“We got a call from our manager at about 7am saying, ‘You’re not going to believe this but our van’s been nicked.'”
“We were all speechless,” producer and guitarist Spencer Tobias-Williams said. “We just couldn’t believe it, it’s the worst news to hear. I think we’ve realised over the past few months how important playing live is for us as a band. So it was double the amount of gutted.”
The band posted an appeal to Instagram and also reported the theft to the Metropolitan Police, confirmed to the BBC.
The three piece also recalled how many people were willing to help, including other musicians so they could continue on a support tour with You Me At Six as planned.
After the tour, a friend of the band messaged to say he thought he’d seen the equipment online. Tobias-Williams said he recognised a guitar and amplifier on an auction website.
He then made a fake account and arranged to meet the seller, adding that he was willing to pay to get the guitar back.
The guitarist and friends met the seller in public and retrieved the guitar without sharing he was the original owner.
A few days later, Tobias-Williams and some friends met with the seller in a public outdoor setting, and bought the guitar back without revealing themselves as the original owners.
They later received pictures of more of their equipment when they asked if the seller had any other music gear for sale.
Cheetham and Tobias-Williams organized to go to the seller’s home to collect the rest of the equipment, along with a drummer who played with the band and a security guard friend.
“The drummer and the security guy said, ‘Look mate, all of this stuff is stolen, it doesn’t belong to you, we have receipts for everything, we know you have it in your house so we’re coming in right now to get it, or we’re going to involve the police, so what do you want to do?'” Tobias-Williams said.
He said the seller was “very apologetic” and claimed he didn’t realise it was stolen, adding that he purchased it from another seller in bulk for £3000.
“We made them break even on it, so it was an amicable end to it,” he added.
Cheetham added: “Obviously justice would be amazing, but we just wanted to go on tour and just wanted the equipment, so when that was happening we were like, ‘OK, cool, we’re happy now.’”
Frontman Cody Matthews said he was “absolutely gutted,” that he wasn’t there for the “sting”, adding that he was at Alton Towers on holiday. “But they smashed it, man, couldn’t have asked for it to have gone better really. I was just so worried, none of us knew who this guy was really, and I just wanted everyone to be safe.”
NOISY’s new single ‘Rock ‘n’ Raver’ is out tonight.