Music teacher seeks return of rare stolen fiddle

A Mont-Carmel music teacher is hoping burglars who ransacked his home over the long weekend have a soft side and return the rare goods they took, including an irreplacable fiddle.

Philippe LeBlanc says thieves took more than $10,000 worth of instruments, jewelry and electronics between Friday and Sunday, while he was on holidays in New Brunswick.

Some of the items were priceless, including a rare fiddle made in the 1990s by the late renowned Island fiddler Kim Vincent, which has Vincent's name inscribed inside.

"He took like one piece and opened it up like a butterfly...just a beautiful, beautiful instrument, sort of an orange amber," said LeBlanc.

"It becomes a part of you. And when someone takes that from you, it's like cutting off your arm," he said. "And knowing the person that made it and the care that he took in making it and all the conversations I've had over the years with him, talking about fiddle making and how passionate this guy was about it, and I had his instrument."

The RCMP is investigating.

Meanwhile, word about the theft is spreading through social media and LeBlanc's family and friends are calling around to music and pawn shops, and monitoring online classified sites.

LeBlanc is asking whoever has his fiddle to drop it off somewhere obvious, no questions asked.

"Hopefully these people will be nice enough to know that I really care about this instrument and I would like them to be nice enough to say 'We'll give it back.'"

RCMP criticized

LeBlanc believes the Mont Carmel area needs more of a police presence.

"For us to feel comfortable that someone's taking care of our communities it's nice to know that police are around every so often," he said.

"We don't see them very often in this area."

RCMP would not comment on the number of patrols in the area.