Two weeks after he was followed home, beaten and robbed at gunpoint, an Atlanta musician is finding some solace in the return of his bass guitar and the support of his music community.
Lance Seymour, a freelance guitarist and father, thought the guitar was lost when he was attacked outside his DeKalb County home early July 4, he told Channel 2 Action News. His assailants also stole his 2010 Volkswagen Jetta, his cellphone and other personal belongings.
About six hours later, police found the VW abandoned and emptied at a vacant spot on Roseheath Lane, according to Channel 2.
Seymour reached out to GearTalk, an extensive online community he runs for musicians, and one of them tracked down the guitar, a 2018 Music Man StingRay bass.
“Apparently the people who stole the bass had listed it online for a very, very small amount of money,” he told Channel 2. The person who bought it returned the guitar to Seymour for free, he said.
It’s a silver lining at the end of a long ordeal for Seymour. It all started when he was rear-ended by a black car on Flat Shoals Road as he was headed to a gas station, not far from his house.
“They hit the back of my car with the car they were in,” he said. “I immediately hit the gas and I heard a single gunshot go off.”
Spooked by the encounter, Seymour said he took a different route home to avoid any trouble. But it appears he was followed.
Seymour sustained a concussion when three men attacked him on his front lawn, according to DeKalb police.
“The next thing I can really remember is being on the ground, bloody face, and three guns pointed at me," he told the news station.
But it didn’t end there.
In the days that followed, the thieves hacked Seymour's social media accounts, including GearTalk's Instagram page, which has 176,000 followers. They sent messages from the accounts asking followers for small-amount loans and promising to pay them back, Channel 2 reported.
Police told the news station they are still following up on leads in the case. No arrests have been made.
Seymour said his family’s sense of security is shaken, but he’s now recovered from his injuries.
“There’s been a lot of really positive things that came out of this,” he said, “especially meeting new people who’ve been willing to help."
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