A guitar like no other and it's gone

Louis de Plessis is philosophical about the fact that while he and his wife Joey were on holiday a couple of weeks ago their home in Kaitaia was burgled. The thieves took his venerable old Volkswagen Golf car, and damaged it beyond repair before abandoning it, and his computer, but it is the taking of their Ibanez Sunburst acoustic guitar that is breaking their hearts.

Louis, who is now the pastor at the Kaitaia Baptist Church, bought the guitar in his native South Africa 33 years ago, when he was wooing his wife to be. Joey, he said, had enormous musical talent but could not afford to buy a guitar. He was a student in those days, earning $38 week, but took all the bonuses he was entitled to and turned all his possessions into cash raise the sum of $800.

He wasn't sure if it was the guitar that "did the trick" all those years ago, but she treasured it, to the point where their children, are now in the habit of asking, when they have done something spectacularly good or well, if that was "good enough for the guitar".

When the couple embarked upon mission work in Africa they gave away their possessions - their car, their home, everything but the guitar.

"It was the only thing we kept. It was all we had left," Louis said. "And now it's been stolen."

None of the property was insured. And while he accepted the guitar had monetary value, he had difficulty understanding why anyone would do what had been done to his family.

"Why would someone take my car and destroy it?" he asked.

"If they needed to get somewhere and pinched my car I wouldn't have had a problem. If they had asked I would have given it to them. I just don't understand why people would steal something to destroy it."

The couple haven't given up hope though. Christians throughout the community were praying for the instrument's return, he said, and he was offering a $400 reward for it, with another $100 for the microphone taken with it, no questions asked. It may be returned to the Baptist Church in Matthews' Avenue Kaitaia, or the Northland Age in Commerce Street.