A CLASSICAL musician has told of her devastation after her prized flute was stolen from the boot of her car at a service station in Westville.
Rozanne Paragon, a principal flautist with the Durban City Orchestra, said she was dropping of her youngest daughter with her mom when the thieves struck.
It’s believed the suspects remote jammed the uMhlanga resident’s car while she went into the service station store.
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CCTV footage later emerged of the men opening the boot of Paragon’s car before taking a laptop bag which contained the flute, worth more than R60 000.
The bag also contained a portable hard drive which had photos from the local resident’s life for the past 10 years.
Paragon believes the thieves were attracted by what they mistook for a laptop, with her flute inside.
“I saw the theft on CCTV, and have the registration of the car used. I put up the number plates on Facebook and after tracing the owner, the police investigating the case believe the criminals cloned the plates of a Phoenix resident. I was only in the store for less than five minutes when the men struck. I was going to the Durban Musical School in Daikonia Avenue to teach underprivileged children. Following the theft, I put up a Facebook post asking for help, unfortunately there haven’t been any leads just yet,” she explained.
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According to Paragon, the flute was specially made for her in 1990 in Japan.
“I studied performance there and the flute was made specifically for me. It has been modified and changed since, the block has a gold mount. The theft is absolutely awful. The flute was a major part of my musical life. It is very difficult to have to find another instrument.
“It is a hard adjustment to get used to a new one. That was my favourite flute – I built my whole career on it. It would be wonderful to get it back,” she said.
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