Stolen Mark VI Alto Serial #236676

Update June 2024: I tried to find out if Sarah Hughes ever got her Mark VI back. I was not able to find anything to indicate that she did. At this point I’m leaving this article here for two reasons: 1. In case this Mark VI with the serial # in the title pops up, and 2. As a reminder for all of us that what happened to her can happen to any of us, male or female, in the blink of an eye. 

If anyone knows if Ms. Hughes got her horn back, please leave a comment below so this article can be appropriately updated. Thanks!

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The tale of yet another stolen Mark VI

On Sunday night as I was coming home from my jazz combo rehearsal, my minty 1991 Volvo wagon was loaded with a couple of my favourite horns and gear: my 198XXX Mark VI tenor, a vintage Dukoff S7 tenor MP, my 266XXX Mark VI soprano, and a Runyon Custom soprano MP that was picked out for me personally by the late Charlie A.

Since moving home from the sleepy Maritime province of New Brunswick in 2004, I have always made it a point to drive with my doors locked, because well, carjackings happen around here with maddening regularity. Whenever I drive with my saxophones in the car, I am especially cognizant of the possibility that someone might jack me, and that my beloved instruments might be gone as well.

As I was driving home Sunday night and stopped to buy gas, I kept thinking about the story I had read a couple of days previously about Sarah Hughes, a musician from Baltimore who was carjacked and who had her beloved Selmer Mark VI alto stolen. She has had this sax for over 10 years, and played it through her conservatory days. Hughes uses her Mark VI to make a living, so the thieves not only stole something that she is very emotionally attached to, but a tool that she uses for her job.

This is what Hughes wrote about this carjacking on her facebook page on July 24, 2017:

I was carjacked last night by a pair of boys, approximately 16 and 14 years of age. I was parked and ready to attend a jam session at E23rd and N Calvert in Baltimore when I was attacked. They threw me into the street from my car after punching my mouth six times and kicking me too. As the one who punched me got into the back seat with my saxophone I pleaded for him to let me keep it but he just said “no bitch” and as I clung to the door frame, they sped away. I flagged down someone in the street and they let me use their phone to call the police. I reported the make and model (Hyundai Elantra) and my license plate (1CR3563) immediately, and also told them my saxophone, purse, keys, phone, and wallet (with $150 in cash from my gig that day :(( were all taken from me. The police said they would send someone. When the cop showed up 15 – 20 minutes later he asked what my license plate was because the dispatcher did not record it. :-0 They then made the alert that my car was stolen, asking me two more times for the car’s information. Please, if you can help me look out for my horn in pawn shops, I would really appreciate that. It’s a Selmer Mark VI with the serial number 236676.

This is the horn in question…

What happened to Hughes made me sit up and take notice, because I hadn’t really thought about the fact that someone might carjack me when I was parking. Sure I might get jacked at a red light, but when I’m safely at a my destination, I must admit let my guard down.

As musicians, we generally perform in the evenings. For much of the year, that means under the cover of darkness. However, musicians aren’t the only ones who operate under the cover of darkness. Property crimes go up after dark as well. I haven’t checked on the stats about carjackings, but when we load our gear in and out of our cars for rehearsals or shows, for much of the year, it is in the dark.

Male or female, anyone can get jacked, but I suspect a woman is a much easier target for male carjackers—especially if they are working in a team like these two delightful, young asshats were.

According to the local NBC affiliate:

Police have been investigating several carjackings over the past several months, and many of the culprits are juveniles.

“Detectives…[are] looking at it again to see if there are any possible connections, and if there’s anything that could possibly lead them to a suspect,” Baltimore police Lt. Nicholas Edwards said.

I can tell you one thing for sure, Sarah Hughes is a better person than I am. She is actually concerned for her young carjackers. I would not be worried about them in the slightest. My anger management issues would get the better of me I’m afraid. 😈

Hughes, who also teaches music to kids, said her a Selmer Mark VI saxophone is irreplaceable, and her livelihood. She knows it might be hard for some to believe, but she also has concern for her attackers.

“Is there some productive way that we can work out your anger? There are productive things you can do to express what you feel that aren’t involving punching and stealing,” Hughes said.

Source: Local musician pleads for carjackers to return her stolen saxophone

All is not lost however, despite her beloved stolen Mark VI still being missing, a crowd funding campaign started by her friends almost immediately after the incident has already surpassed its goal of $6,000. The money raised will be:

…used to purchase a comparable saxophone, replace other important work items including her phone, music stand, sax stand, reeds, mouthpiece, recover the $150 gig money that was in her wallet and help offset her projected raised car insurance rate.

If her saxophone is recovered, or one is found for less than the estimated cost, the extra proceeds will be donated to a charitable program which benefits Baltimore inner city youths.

I do hope that Hughes gets her beloved alto back, but if she doesn’t, at least she now has the money to replace it with something similar. But here’s the thing: Although you might be able to replace a vintage horn with another one of the same make and model, you are not guaranteed to get the same-feeling or sounding instrument. By now they are very much played-in, and very few (none?) actually play alike.

That’s both the beauty and downside of playing vintage: their uniqueness makes the really great ones amazing to play, but also very difficult to replace if anything ever happens to them.

If anyone hears that Hughes does get her sax back, please leave a comment. Until then, we’ll just keep this article up and Mark VI alto #236676 listed as stolen. If you see it for sale, please let Sarah Hughes know through her facebook page, or through her website. Thank you.