Two men who pleaded guilty to stealing guitars made by famed guitar maker Paul Reed Smith were ordered to pay restitution in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Friday.
Jeffrey Lanahan, 44, of Annapolis, and Michael Kelly, 42, of Arnold, pleaded guilty in June to a theft scheme in which they took guitars made for bands like Third Eye Blind, Incubus and Train and arranged for them to be sold on eBay.
“We wrote off $250,000 worth of guitars,” Smith said in court Friday, “Everybody felt kind of betrayed.”
Lanahan worked for Smith in Stevensville for nine years. Before he resigned in September 2004, he worked as the director of artists? relations, promoting guitars to recording artists. He was one of the few people at Paul Reed Smith Guitars who had access to the one-of-a-kind guitars, charging documents said.
Smith eventually discovered one of his stolen guitars ? one of only 11 ? on eBay, charging documents said. The guitar was connected back to a friend of Lanahan?s and Kelly?s.
The friend, Michael Green, told police that he had sold about 20 Paul Reed Smith guitars on ebay. He also said that Kelly had given him about 10 more guitars to sell.
The guitars, valued at thousands of dollars, were often marketed as guitars used by recording artists like Nickelback, Assistant State?s Attorney Michael Dunty said.
Investigators were able to trace back approximately $40,000 worth of guitars back to Lanahan and Kelly, and they recovered guitars worth about $19,000, Dunty said.
Lanahan was sentenced to three months of house arrest, five years probation, community service and was ordered to pay Smith about $21,000.
Kelly was sentenced to three years probation, community service and was ordered to pay Smith $5,000.
