PHOENIX — A string of car break-ins left a musician without her instruments just a few days before a big out-of-state gig. She’s now looking to the community for help.
If a true singer-songwriter can make a living on just three chords and the truth, part of that truth for Abby Walker is that being a musician can be pretty fragile sometimes.
She says after a Sunday gig, she got back to her house near 12th Street and Northern Avenue in Phoenix and uncharacteristically left her instruments in her locked car.
“I always bring in the instruments, especially when it’s going to rain. I got home and I was just wiped out,” she said.
She soon discovered her custom guitarlele, custom ukulele, and a Taylor guitar were all stolen from her car.
Just those instruments alone amount to thousands of dollars in gear. Also taken was the cash she planned to pay her band with.
“More than anything, it makes… [me] disheartened,” she said.
Several other cars in the area were broken into around the same time. Phoenix police say one car was stolen - all without any noticeable damage.
”It tells me someone knows what they’re doing, and that’s terrifying,” she said.
So, with a highly anticipated gig set in California on Wednesday, Abby’s relying on old and borrowed gear while she hopes someone back in the Valley keeps an eye out.
In a video she posted on social media, she said some instruments are discontinued and can’t be replaced.
The whole ordeal led to a revelation with the thief or thieves in mind.
”That’s my livelihood that’s gone, but at the same time if someone felt they needed to survive, so desperately they were taking from other people. Then they need the prayer more than anything,” she said.
So, with three chords and the truth, Walker has already written a song about the adversity she faced.
