"It really does feel like my arm has been chopped off. I'm helpless," Carpy told ABC7.
Carpy moved to Chicago from Scotland last summer hoping to break into the Chicago Blues scene. He had little money and few connections. What he did have was custom-built Fender Stratocaster guitar that was given to him years ago by his father, who died.
"It then became the only material item that means everything to me, that reminds me of my father," he said.
Last Saturday night, Carpy took a cab to Blue Chicago in River North. He and two friends hopped out of the cab.
"It was the most horrendous, bottom-of-the-stomach, sick feeling I've ever experienced," said Carpy.
Carpy, who works at a soup kitchen, has called nearly 20 cab companies, as well as pawn shops and guitar stores. "I've printed flyers. I've stood at O'Hare Airport in the taxi rank for four hours giving out flyers to taxi drivers," Carpy said.
Carpy also told his story to the paper. Soon, a man claiming to be an out of town truck driver named Larry Rice called. The man said he was passing through town last week when he bought the guitar at the Rock 'N Roll McDonalds, one block from Blue Chicago. The problem is the story wasn't true.
When he asked for a wire transfer of the offered reward, Carpy became suspicious.
An Internet search turned up warnings about con-artists claiming to be long-haul truckers, some even using the same alias of Larry Rice. On Thursday, Rice's phone number was disconnected.
Anyone who has information on Brian's guitar can contact him at brian_carpy@hotmail.com.
