NAPERVILLE (STNG) -- He was nowhere near the scene of the crime, which itself was hardly as dark or intense as any of the fictional crises featured in his television series "24," but actor Kiefer Sutherland played a peripheral role in things just the same.
Twenty-four also turned out to be the number of vintage and collectible guitar replicas recovered by Naperville police after the recent hijacking of a motorized music museum, one that includes a six-string guitar bearing Sutherland's name.
Mark A. Carrothers, 34, of Highland, Ind., surrendered to Naperville police on a charge of felony theft in connection with the incident late last month on the city's far northwest side. Police eventually recovered all of the replicas from several locations in northwestern Indiana, Hoffman said. They remainm in the police department's evidence storage.
Police Cmdr. Dave Hoffman said patrol officers were summoned at 12:30 a.m. Sept. 26 to the Cracker Barrel restaurant on W. Diehl Road.
The curator of the Traveling Gibson Guitar Museum had called 911 to report his black 2000 Dodge pickup truck and pull trailer had been stolen from the restaurant's parking lot, Hoffman said.
Hoffman said the truck and trailer were laden with 24 Gibson Guitar Corp. replicas. They ranged in price from $200 to $13,000 and had a total estimated value of just less than $60,000, he said.
The guitars included a Byrdland Vintage Sunburst model worth $4,450; a B.B. King Signature replica, valued at $1,819; and a Kiefer Sutherland KS-336 model worth $2,599, Hoffman said.
The missing truck and trailer were prominently detailed with Gibson insignia, Hoffman said.
Police recovered the emptied truck and trailer 20 minutes later near Interstate 88 and Highland Avenue in Downers Grove, Hoffman said.
Carrothers became the prime suspect in the theft "through a tip developed through the (police) Crime Stoppers network," Hoffman said.
Carrothers is free on bail and awaiting an arraignment date in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton.
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