It was 2 a.m. on a snowy February night when Daisy Mauterer and Brian Weikel arrived home exhausted after playing a double bill for their bands The B.A.B.E.S and La Cucarachas.
The cold, along with the late hour, and the relative safety of their West Fort Collins neighborhood lulled the couple into deciding to leave their instruments and music gear in the locked car, parked in the driveway, for the night.
"Every musician has done it - we know it's wrong but it felt... like it would be OK," Mauterer said.
It wasn't.
In the morning Mauterer and Weikel found their unassuming Honda CR-V with the cracked windshield and a wall of stickers from New Jersey to California unlocked and more than $4,500 in gear lighter. Thieves had robbed them of Weikel's Modulus bass and Mauterer's Gibson Flying V guitar and brand new drum pedal board.
"It felt like such a violation," Mauterer said. "Those were our instruments... That's how we make our livelihood."
To make matters worse, both musicians had showcases just weeks away at the South By Southwest festival in Austin. Friends have lent instruments to the couple to practice on, but Weikel said changing things up now isn't easy.
"I didn't think it would affect me that much," said Weikel, who discovered just how much it would affect him later that night when he practiced with another of his bands, Wasteland Hop.
"I almost started tearing up because it just didn't sound right, it didn't feel right, and then I realized that I just didn't have my bass anymore," he said.
The couple still holds out hope that their gear will be found, but said filing police reports and driving to a number of Wyoming pawn shops, which use a different database system than Colorado to track stolen property, as well as tracking various websites online has been a daunting task.
There are so many outlets, Mauterer said. From pawn shops to Craigslist to stores like Music Go Round, where Mauterer works, which buys used instruments. They've launched a Community Funded campaign to raise $5,000 to purchase new gear.
For Mauterer, the worst part was the moment right after when she felt like giving up on music. It was a short lived thought but one that burned in her brain.
"I refuse to give up and not do what I love just because someone took my guitar," she said.
