Guitar stolen from Hilton Head Island restaurant recovered

A $20,000 one-of-a-kind guitar was recovered by law enforcement Tuesday after it was stolen from Hawaii-based singer-songwriter Donavon Frankenreiter at The Rooftop Bar at Poseidon on Hilton Head Island last weekend.

Surveillance footage of a man stealing Frankenreiter’s white 1969 Fender Stratocaster along with a painting valued at $1,000 Sunday night helped lead law enforcement to a New York man now charged with the theft, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office news release.

The video showed a man taking the guitar from Poseidon’s backstage and quickly leaving the bar in a silver Jaguar, which investigators were able to identify as belonging to an Uber driver, the release stated.

Through interviews with the Uber driver and other witnesses, investigators identified the man as 24-year-old Michael Triarsi, who was on a flight back home, the release said.

After authorities in New York contacted Triarsi’s family members at his residence, Triarsi called investigators and made arrangements to fly back to Hilton Head to recover the stolen items from friends to whom he said he gave them.

He returned the guitar to the Sheriff’s Office and turned himself in, the office reported. Triarsi was charged with one count of grand larceny for the theft of the guitar and the painting.

The instrument’s recovery will end a social media campaign to find the culprit shared hundreds of times by fans of Frankenreiter, who is known for his surfer-style music.

“This guy ripped out a bit of my (soul) last night,” Frankenreiter wrote on Instagram in a profanity-laced tirade after the show. “... Let’s get this guy.”

The painting has not yet been recovered as investigators are continuing efforts to retrieve it from Triarsi's friends, the sheriff’s office reported Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Guitar stolen from Hilton Head Island restaurant recovered."