2010 Theft of Musician's Rare French Horn Ends on Sweet Note

GROSSE POINTE PARK, MI – Thanks to the grapevine that Facebook built, a professional musician from Metro Detroit got her rare Daniel Rauch French horn back some six years after it was stolen.

Kristi Crago, of Grosse Pointe Park, told WXYZ-TV she figured the instrument was gone for good in 2010 when it was stolen while she was in California with her younger sister, who was going through chemotherapy at the time.

Even so, Crago posted a message on a Facebook group a few months ago.

On Monday, Crago got the call she never fully expected to come, and when it did, she doubted the found horn was actually her missing instrument.

Crago is grateful the person who saw the Craigslist ad didn’t just seize an opportunity to get “a really cheap Rauch,” she told the television station.

Instead, police in Orange County, CA, set up a sting, and now the horn is in the hands of Crago’s sister in California. Crago will be playing it again after some repairs are made in Chicago.

Crago said she owes a “huge thank-you” to the musicians who “rallied around us waiting for it to be put back in my hands.”