Korn bassist Roberto “Ra” Díaz has finally recovered 15 bass guitars that were stolen from a storage space in Las Vegas about two weeks ago – thanks to a concerted effort involving the local community and police force.
According to Fox 5 Las Vegas, a handful of instruments were discovered by local musician and tattoo artist Dave Chipp at a music store in Henderson, Nevada, around 16 miles from Las Vegas.
Article continues below“I picked it up, played it. I was like, 'Man, this is awesome.' And I looked on the 12th fret, and it said Ra ST, which is Ra Suicidal Tendencies,” Chipp told the news outlet.
Chipp went on to call a friend who was connected to Díaz. “He’s like, ‘Where did you find that? Our storage unit’s been broken into. Everything’s been cleared out,’” he recounted. “We found eight of them.”
Following this initial discovery, it took only a couple of days for Chipp to locate more of the stolen instruments – as well as pedals and personalized memorabilia – at other music stores in the area, and immediately notified the Henderson police.
“As a musician, I’ve heard tons of stolen gear and equipment horror stories. I can’t believe how lucky I am that mine has a happy ending thanks to them,” he wrote.
“The amount of sentimental value some of these instruments have is impossible to explain, and the fact that they’re now safe in my possession is truly a blessing.”
Jameson Harding, the detective in charge of the case, commented, “One [bass] that we recovered had a Chilean flag on it. And Mr. Díaz is from Chile. And so, they’re getting ready to tour there.
“He was just super thankful that we found that guitar because he said his plan the whole time was to come back to Vegas for Sic New World, get that guitar, and take it on tour with him. So, it was really cool to be able to give him that. It’s obviously part of his heritage.”
In related news, Díaz’s predecessor and Korn's former bassist, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, recently addressed his unexpected departure from the band.
