Ohio musician whose guitar was stolen gets guitar back, no questions asked

By News 5 Staff

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    MEDINA, Ohio (WEWS) — Last month, News 5 told you how a community stepped up when a beloved musician went silent after his guitar was stolen, and because of the kindness, Rick Gaudet was able to show that love right back in a number of ways. Now that story has taken another twist.

Earlier this week, Gaudet received a call from someone saying he had his original lost guitar. No questions asked, Gaudet met up with the man and got it back. “Most of all, I said to him, just, thank you for giving me my guitar. I don’t really need any information,” Gaudet said.

Gaudet is known for playing his guitar all around Medina. This all started when he posted on social media that he left his beloved guitar while playing outside of Marc’s shopping plaza, but when he returned, it was gone.

The post struck a chord in the Medina community.

“Before I knew it we had a GoFundMe set up,” resident Tracie Provost said.

Within a few days, the community raised more than $1,000 to get him a new guitar.

But while all that was happening, Gaudet received a call from a woman who wished to remain anonymous saying that she had a brand new guitar that she wanted to give him.

During that call, he learned she was fighting colon cancer.

He told Provost, who created the GoFundMe, about the situation.

“All I know is she is battling cancer and she really wants to give this to me and she felt called to give this to me and I said okay whatever money we can raise on your behalf we can gift to her,” Provost said.

Gaudet got a new guitar and the anonymous donor got the funds, but that wasn’t the finale of this act.

Now that he has his old guitar back, the anonymous donor said they didn’t want the new guitar back but wanted Gaudet to keep spreading joy through music.

“I just sat there in my car just dumbfounded and I started crying. I just started in tears. And it’s not sad tears as it was tears of Just joy and the overwhelming love that was poured out of me by Medina by, you guys, by channel five,” Gaudet said.

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