The owner of a stolen Marigaux oboe and 100-year-old cor anglais worth £20,000 has praised the police for helping him retrieve the instruments.

Freelance classical musician Christopher Braime, 30, of Croydon, was devastated when both instruments were stolen from his car in Burston Road, Putney.

The Putney Choral Society conductor appealed on internet sites, including PutneySW15.com, for the stolen instrument to be returned.

Mr Braime struggled to work without the instruments, while his antique cor anglais is more than 100-years-old and irreplaceable.

On January 5 he was contacted by a man offering to return the oboe to him and arranged to meet him at Putney Railway station at midday.

Police officers from Putney and Wandsworth Neighbourhood Policing Team accompanied Mr Braime to speak to the man.

The man claimed he found the instruments in the bin of an off-licence.

Mr Braime was forced to go into the man's flat alongside plain clothes police officers, who arrested the 38-year-old man on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

He was later released with no further action to be taken.

Mr Braime praised the help he received from Wandsworth police and said he was saved from a scary situation.

He said: "I was pretty devastated. The thing about instruments is, it's not like a computer, it can't be immediately replaced.

"You get to know them, you feel a connection to them. The cor anglais was largely irreplaceable because of the instrument and the history of it.

"It was an incredible sense of relief, you don't realise the extent something like that can affect you."

Inspector Jayme Johnson said: "The victim did fantastically well to use the internet to widely advertise his loss and appeal for its return.

"My officers were very happy to help him get his oboe back. You cannot underestimate the feeling of returning such a valuable and sentimental item to someone."

 

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