Irreplacable guitar stolen from Jacksonville Navy pilot

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It wasn’t the start Thann Blanchard and his wife Laura imagined when they moved into their Springfield home.

The military couple was on vacation during the holidays when they received the unnerving phone call that their home was broken into.

“We threw everything in the kitchen, locked up the house, went to the airport,” Blanchard said. “A week later, we got a phone call from our contractor who said that the back door had been kicked in.”

Insurance documents show the thieves took nearly $6,000 worth of items.

The most priceless thing taken was Blanchard’s rare, custom-made guitar.

Blanchard, a Navy pilot at NAS Jax, said it was a present when he returned from his first deployment.

He said he didn't know the guitar had been taken at first because the couple is getting their home remodeled. Everything they owned had still been packed away.

“It’s bad enough coming back when you have to unpack, but then we kind of had to sift through stuff and find what was missing and just work through that,” Blanchard said.

In the meantime, the couple keep learning that new items were taken.

However, the guitar is what strikes the deepest chord with Blanchard.

“The guitar was the only thing that was actually irreplaceable that was taken,” he said. “It’s somebody taking away a piece of you.”

Family members have been trying to spread the word about the stolen guitar through social media.

If you have any information about this case, call JSO at (904) 630-0500.

Cox Media Group