Lolita Harper
HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- Musician Gabriel Kavaloski was able to find a
silver lining in his guitar case after being burglarized recently.
When thieves stole his guitar out of his girlfriend's car two weeks
ago, it was banged up, dirty and without strings. But when he got it
back, it was clean and had brand-new strings, he said.
"That was kind of cool. I guess the guys who stole it knew they
couldn't sell it like it was and fixed it up. So I got free strings for
my guitar," Kavaloski said.
Kavaloski, 22, of Pasadena, was in between apartments and had all of
his belongings packed into his girlfriend's 1995 Mercury Sable, which was
parked in a secured parking structure in the 500 block of Olive Avenue,
when her car was broken into.
Police recovered his guitar, sword and cell phone after arresting
Daniel Goodrum and Edward Moore, both 20, of Bell, in connection with a
rash of hillside auto thefts. But the musician is still missing an
amplifier, he said.
Finding the stolen equipment was crucial to the success of Kavaloski's
new-wave-electronic-polka band, Horace Weintraub.
The band has a cardboard cutout drummer and plays venues in Highland
Park and Long Beach, Kavaloski said. And although the drummer is fake,
the guitarist is real and needs a guitar to play, he said.
