LOGAN SQUARE — Musician Abby Lee Hood is heartbroken and wondering how she will make ends meet after a thief stole her 1930s-era fiddle from her car over the weekend.
The 22-year-old college student got into her car — parked in the 2300 block of North Sawyer Avenue — around 8:30 a.m. Saturday to teach fiddle lessons in suburban Wilmette only to find her glove box rifled through and her cup of change overturned. There was no apparent damage to the doors or locks.
"I thought, 'Oh no, this is terrible.' But there was nothing of real value taken," she thought at first.
It didn't occur to Hood until she drove about a mile down the road that one of her most prized possessions — a Stradivarius replica fiddle given to her by her late grandfather — was stored in her trunk. Hood checked the trunk and saw that the instrument was gone.
"I felt sick to my stomach," she said.
Following a "full-blown panic attack," Hood went home and immediately filed a police report and started making fliers. She checked Craigslist and local pawn shops but the fiddle has yet to turn up.
Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman, confirmed the theft, saying an investigation is ongoing.
"They just wanted to make a quick buck off it. They weren't thinking about the fact that I'm a person," said Hood, who has lived near Fullerton and Sawyer avenues since June.
The fiddle, which is valued at about $1,500, was a gift from Hood's late grandfather, who raised Hood on a goat farm in Tennessee after her parents divorced when she was just 6 months old.
"He was there for me when my parents split and was my best friend," Hood's flier reads.
"He would sit around and play guitar for hours and sing. We used to to go festivals together. That was a big part of my childhood," she said.
Hood's grandfather surprised Hood with the fiddle when she was about 10 years old, she said. He bought the fiddle — made in Germany during the Great Depression — from "some old guy" at one of the many bluegrass festivals they attended together.
It was the instrument that inspired Hood to take lessons and play professionally as she got older.
"I can't remember not having it," she said.
Hood said the theft is especially painful because it forced her to confront her grandfather's death in 2011.
"When he passed away, it was a really stressful time for my whole family. I have to relive all of that, which I'm still not over," she said.
Hood recalled telling her grandfather on his deathbed that she would make him proud.
"In a lot of ways, I feel guilt. Like I messed up. I did something wrong because it was taken from me. I promised that I would make him proud," she said.
The fiddle is also a source of income for Hood, who teaches lessons and plays gigs at Rock House in suburban Wilmette a couple times a week to make ends meet. She is currently a journalism student at Columbia College Chicago, where she works at the college newspaper, The Columbia Chronicle.
"Rent is due tomorrow and I don't know how I'm going to pay it. I can't pay my bills," she said. "I lost about $150 Saturday that I was supposed to make at lessons. I just had a pay cut at work [The Columbia Chronicle]. I don't know what I'm going to do."
One of Hope's students set up an online fundraiser campaign to help offset the cost of the fiddle. As of Monday afternoon, the campaign had raised more than $300.
Despite the painful incident, Hope remains optimistic.
"I guess it's a little naive, but I'm going to believe in the goodness of people and if they realize that I'm a person, then maybe they'll say, 'Hey, I see that I broke her heart'" and return it, she said.
The fiddle is recognizable due to a slight crack on the top right of the body. One of the bows is from Seman Violins in suburban Skokie.
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