Burglars target Palm Aire

PALM-AIRE — When Steve Fayette returned to his Palm Aire home the morning of Oct. 12, he thought it strange that his computer and monitors were missing from their usual place.

“I couldn’t grasp it,” said Fayette, who owns a home-based recording studio, Eternal Sound Studios. “I was nervous all of a sudden and in disbelief. There had to be an answer.”

But as he searched his house, he realized microphones and other equipment from his studio also were missing. Burglars had loosened the back window to get into the home and unlock the back door.

Fayette’s home, another residence and four vehicles, all on Inverness Drive and West Country Club Drive, were burglarized sometime between 11 p.m. Oct. 11 and 5 a.m. Oct. 12.

Burglars stole a GPS, iPod, sunglasses and other, miscellaneous items from vehicles and attempted to take a television from the kitchen of the other home.

Fayette’s home was hit worst, with more than $10,000 in equipment stolen. Burglars backed up a vehicle to Fayette’s corner lot, broke in and loaded up on JBL monitors, a high-end computer, microphones and other equipment.

“We were just getting bigger,” said Fayette. “This hurts. It’s like a kick in the stomach.”

Although Fayette is upset about losing his equipment, he said he is more distressed for his clients, because the stolen computer’s hard drives contained their nearly finished recordings.

“My clients’ projects are in there,” Fayette said, adding he’d be happy if just the hard drives were returned undamaged. “To me, it’s heartbreaking.”

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the string of burglaries and has leads on the case, Public Information Officer Dave Bristow said. However, no arrests had been made by press time Tuesday.

“We have constant contact with the pawn shops,” Bristow said. “If any of the stuff turns up there, there’s a pretty good chance we would know. Something like (the music equipment), they might try to get rid of on the streets.”

Although Fayette and his clients are still reeling in the aftermath of the burglaries, Fayette said he has been overwhelmed by the support he has experienced since announcing the break-in on his studio’s Facebook page Oct. 12.

Fellow musicians — many of whom he does not know personally — have offered to lend him equipment, checked local pawnshops for his missing equipment and offered words of encouragement.

“Everybody’s been really gracious,” Fayette said. “I think we’re going to try to continue at this point.”

Anyone with information on the burglaries should contact the Sheriff’s Office at 747-3011.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

STOLEN EQUIPMENT
Neumann U87 microphone, two Sennheiser 421 microphones, AKG C 535 EB microphone, Blue Dragonfly microphone, pair of JBL LSR 4326p studio monitors, and Mackie 12 channel mixer 1202-VLX Pro. Also stolen was a computer that ran both Apple and Windows I7 Quadcore; two 19-inch, flat-screen monitors; and three Furman Monitor Mixer boxes.