Mike Miltimore, centre, says people with specific skill sets have offered their assistance in recreating content from a laptop stolen during a break-in at his Riversong Guitars workshop in Kamloops.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK / Mike Miltimore
December 30, 2019 - 4:00 PM
After a break-in at his custom guitar factory in Kamloops, Mike Miltimore says he is amazed by the support offered by the community.
On Dec. 27, Miltimore was alerted of an early morning break-in at the Riversong Guitars factory on 450 Lorne St. in Kamloops. He was first worried about the many expensive guitars in the shop but found only one thing had been stolen - a laptop used for marketing purposes.
Miltimore is set to attend one of the biggest music industry trade shows in California from Jan. 16 to 19 and worried about all the lost content on the stolen computer. He was concerned he had lost catalogues, images and advertisement material necessary for the show. He took to social media that morning to post a video and asked he thief to return the computer for a reward or offered them a different computer in exchange.
After posting the video, he says there was a “Christmas miracle” of people responding with offers of help to replace the lost content.
“We probably had three different graphic designers say, ‘Hey listen, we can come in, we can do up your catalogue for you, and we can work with you at no charge,’ which is amazing," Miltimore says. "We had a photographer in town offer to come and take photos of all of our gear, and this one blew my mind… when we said we were going to give a reward for the return of the laptop, several people said they would chip in money towards that. It’s unbelievable.”
Although his marketing manager was away for Christmas holidays, once he got a hold of her he realized she had backed up most of the information and raw photos to an external location. Although relieved, some of their more recent work for the trade show was lost.
He still hopes to have the laptop returned and says one tech-savvy Kamloops man gave him tips on how to find it.
“He gave me a lot of really great advice about things like Dropbox, which can also do location finding stuff, and Gmail which can do location finding, as well as Find My Mac. We’ve got a lot of smart people in Kamloops and a lot of supportive people and that was really cool.”
Credit: FACEBOOK / Mike Miltimore
Although there have been no tips from the public or information from the RCMP yet, Miltimore says that shortly before the break-in, two masked thieves were spotted lurking around a nearby building.
“There was an attempted break-in at our neighbour's (building),” he says. “An hour before our break-in happened, it was two people dressed all in black and with a balaclava and everything, trying to break into the building and they got that on surveillance so we’ll see what happens.”
He says this isn’t the first time the community has rallied to support him. He says a break-in at his family's store Lee’s Music three years ago saw thieves steal about $30,000 of equipment but they were able to recover most of the merchandise, including an expensive mixing board. He also credits strong community ties as one of the reasons he has been successful in business and won awards.
“It’s amazing. I’m always impressed with how the community of Kamloops really pulls through… we’re so lucky to have what we have here,” Miltimore says. “I’ve never lived anywhere else, but I can’t imagine other places being as good as Kamloops and our community.”
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