Sad story, but a painfully common occurrence. I'm a recovered heroin addict (clean 43 years) please tell your friend for me that he needs to get his son into a drug-free residential therapeutic community immediately. (Live-in drug program.) Even if he has to get a court order to do it. Addicts, unchecked, will do anything and everything to keep their addiction run going as long as possible. The next shot could be his last. It is quite literally a life or death situation. I can pm you my personal contact info if your friend wants to/needs to talk to an expert, or ask questions. I was the director of a treatment facility (Phoenix House) for 12 years. I have a Supervising Addiction Specialist rating with the New York Dept. of Substance Abuse Services. (NY-DSAS) I am highly trained and I specialized in family crisis intervention. I'll be able to provide information, help and practical advice. I'll be glad to help your buddy try to save his son's life in any way that I can. Tell him I am at his disposal.John
John,
Just wanted to follow up on this. The gentleman and his wife put his son in a high-end rehab and are trying that route one more time. He could have gotten his guitars back for free by filing a Police report (he found 80% of them), but decided against it. Instead, and after pressure from hundreds of emails and calls from several internet forums, Guitar Center corporate stepped in along with the local GC manager to pull the guitars off the floor and allow him to buy them back for what they paid. They had the legal high ground and them some, but decided the good PR was better than the massive profit they would have made. He had to put all his funds into buying back his 1956 Les Paul Custom (VERY valuable guitar, GC could have made 20k on the sale). Basically, finding and reacquiring that ONE guitar more than the others was his equipment version of total victory. :)
Surrounded by drummers here! (I am a guitarist.) 