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The wedding guitar caper

Whitney Chan and her husband Brian (centre) got a second chance at a lost love, when their stolen wedding guitar was located
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Whitney Chan and her husband Brian (centre) got a second chance at a lost love

A very special guitar was stolen in Hope last Monday — the beloved object was a wedding gift for Whitney Chan, from her husband Brian on their wedding day. The distraught couple started a search and rescue mission to retrieve the guitar, with the help of friends.

“On Saturday, a small group went with Whitney and I to put up posters along the highway and nearby towns, all the way to Hope,” said Brian. “There was a pawn store in Chilliwack that I wanted to visit, so Whitney and I arrived at Nuway Pawn Broker and handed them a poster.”

The couple were directed to another shop across the street to hand out more posters, while their friends covered the streets, spreading the message of a stolen musical treasure.

“It was a long day and I felt discouraged on the way back, but Whitney reminded me to have faith and trust.

The couple survived a troubled weekend, and with the dawning of a new week came the good news that the wedding guitar (a symbol of their love for one another) had been recovered Monday afternoon at Common Exchange (a pawn shop in Chilliwack.) They did what any ecstatic owners of a lost treasure would do — they drove out in the morning to take it back. Proving to be in good condition with the case still in tact, there were a few personal inscriptions on the guitar that had been erased.

“Inside the sound hole, “for my brother Caleb” had been chiseled out and the leather strap with my name on it is missing,” said Brian. “We didn’t ask many questions — we don’t know whether the perpetrator had a change of heart or was just trying to sell it, but we were elated that it had been found.

A rep from Common Exchange noted that in her many years at the store, something like this, has only happened twice.

“God is good, always, all times.”