Well, I had moved into my apart­ment in Harolds Cross on 30 April and the next day I was cleaning with the window opened slightly in the front room. Anyway, I had to go to work at five and one of my colleagues arrived to give me a lift. We were in a rush because we were running late and I forgot to close the window.

When I got back that night, around four in the morning, I discovered my stuff strewn around the apartment. A lot of my belong­ings had been in suitcases because I had just moved in and they were emptied on the floor. Then I noticed my basses were missing along with two laptops. They didn't take anything else of value. The basses had been resting against a wall so I guess they were very noticeable. I'm a professional musician. I play the double bass with the National Symphony Orchestra and play the electric bass with different bands and musicians. Those basses are my bread and butter.

I kind of went into denial about what had happened. I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't even make a call to the police or anybody else because my phone was dead and they had stolen my phone charger as well. So I sat on the couch for about an hour in complete shock. I could have gone to Rathmines police station, which was only a few streets away, but I weirdly decided it was best to get a couple of hours sleep and report the robbery in the morning. So at around 12 the next day I went to buy a phone charger and rang the police.

They came within a half hour. I told them the story and they took down a statement. I explained to the detectives, who were really helpful, that my stolen Rickenbacker bass guitar is hard to get. If you want one of these guitars, you have to order one from the UK or the US. They also took a Fender Precision bass guitar, which is vintage and from 1971, as well as my brand new Mac Book Pro and a Hewlett Packard laptop. But it's the guitars that I really care about.

The crime squad arrived about two hours after the detectives. They were like CSI or something and were looking for prints and stuff. They actually called me yesterday. It took three weeks for the fingerprints to come back. They haven't found any matches but that doesn't mean that they won't find one in the future. They may catch someone doing a break in, at a later date, arrest them and discover that their prints match the ones at my apartment.

After the break in, it took me about a week to digest that it had really happened and come to terms with it. I was thinking all kinds of things. Was it karma or something? Had I done something bad and it was coming back to haunt me? But then I had to accept that it was just something that happened randomly. It was a hard lesson to learn because I wasn't insured.

But you know, I had left the window ajar at a time when, according to the gardaí, robberies are up 100%. I have a job. I'm alive. So I got over it and went to the credit union. They gave me a loan to replace a bass and laptop.

Since the robbery, I've dropped leaflets about the bass guitars into music shops and pawn shops. I've also put ads in the paper and on websites. I have lots of friends who are musicians who have been helping me by putting the word out there about the break in. But every time I see a guy carrying a bass guitar, I find myself checking to see if it could be one of mine. There's always hope.