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Music to his ears: Man reunited with stolen guitar nine years later

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In the spring of 2013, Art Moore had his guitar stolen from his home while he was visiting his father in the hospital.

Despite a generous reward, the guitar was never returned and never seen again by the owner — until Tuesday.

The guitar — worth $4,000 — was stolen from the high school teacher's Moncton home nine years ago and sold at a pawn shop near his house.

"It's magnificent," said Moore after taking the guitar out of a box. "There's a little bit of damage on there. But I know some guitar guys, so hopefully, they can figure it out for me, but what a surprise after nine years."

The guitar eventually ended up in the hands of a Moncton man who didn't know it was stolen. He found out it belonged to Moore and wanted to give it back, so a friend of his contacted CTV News to set up a reunion which took place early Tuesday afternoon.

While the guitar is an expensive instrument, it's also one with sentimental value.

"I remember I was going into Long & McQuade and playing it, but thought I'll never be able to afford that guitar, so I put it back on the stand. And then one day, I thought, I'm going to go get that guitar. And I got there and it was gone. What had happened was my wife had bought it and it was on my guitar stand at home," said Moore.

A young man and woman were spotted breaking into his home nine years ago and stole $7,000 worth of goods.

His students at the time of the theft launched a social media campaign in hopes of having the guitar returned.

Pawn shop owner Bill Roberts told CTV News that in 2013 he asked for identification from the girl who sold the guitar, and he doesn't believe he did anything wrong.

The rugby coach at Harrison Trimble High School and military veteran was so distraught over the loss of the guitar, he wrote a poem about the girl.

"It's about me seeing this kind of beautiful, fragile creature because she was filmed taking it out of my house, my neighbour had a video camera. I could see her and she just looked in such tough shape. I remember thinking, I really feel terrible for that girl," he said.

In 2013, Moore offered a $500 reward for the return of his guitar. He gave an undisclosed amount to the woman who returned it Tuesday.

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