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Fort Simpson mobilizes to find bands stolen gear 16 Tuesday September 22 2015 NORTHERNERS MUSIC BY CRAIG GILBERT A new legend for the North has emerged from Fort Simpson. The working title is The Welders Daughter and the Uncle of the Thief. Welders Daughter a longstanding Yellow- knife band originally from Vancouver rode a rollercoaster of emotions from the deepest valley to the highest mountaintop on Sept. 12 starting when they discovered that morning that about 10000 worth of their gear had been stolen overnight. The hardest thing to deal with is that panic lead vocalist Karen Novak said. You cant believe it happened. Then we start think- ing how are we going to pull off this show Stolen from the Fort Simpson recreation centre were two electric guitars a black Ya- maha bass guitar an iPadApple laptop combo the band uses in place of a mixing board and a myriad of other items including a micro- phone headphones memory cards and ca- bles. The list grew as the veteran musicians took stock and set up what they could. The guitars taken were special to the band. One was a numbered Fender Stratocaster pro- totype with a striking custom zebrawood fin- ish the other a white Fender Telecaster. The only thing taken from the drummers station was a flashlight that the band figured the cul- prits used to look around with. When Attila got his guitar back he liter- ally hugged it Novak said. Its one of his favourites. You kind of hunt for your whole life for the instrument that makes your life Welders Daughter guitarist Attila Novak holds his favourite axe a numbered Fender Stratocaster prototype in Fort Simpson Sept. 12. The guitar and about 10000 of other gear was stolen from the towns recreation centre overnight found and returned in time for the show to go on. easier that is easier to play and sounds great. Its a euphoric feeling when you find it. You have more fun and that feeling gets passed on to the audience. ShortlyafterNovakpostedaboutthethefton aFortSimpsonFacebookpagethecommunity mobilized coordinating through text mes- sages and physically combing the town. One lady was going through dumpsters because someone broke into the youth cen- tre and stole an XBox and they found it in a dumpster Novak said. People were looking in ditches and going through the woods. It was a huge effort that paid off and it never would have happened in southern Canada. Within 30 minutes of announcing the gear had been stolen Lindsay Waugh the emcee for the evenings event had offered up four high-end guitars for the band to borrow. By 5 p.m. the bands gear had been re- covered. Fort Simpson RCMP which had called in the G Division forensic unit to help investigate credited the communitys coordination over social media with crack- ing the case. A man just walked in holding two guitar cases and the iPad and said Are these your things I found them in my nephews closet Novak said. So we told him what else was missing and they found out where the rest of the stuff was. They found the bass guitar stuffed under the stage at the recreation centre. The RCMP charged 18 year-old Stephan Sekaya Hardisty with one count each of break enter and in- tent to commit theft over 5000 and under 5000 and one count of possession of break- in tools. A second adult male was diverted to community justice. The charges have not been proven in court. We felt so good doing the show that night Novak said. We wanted to show how pleased we were and how much we appreciated the communitys help. We went a little into over- time but it was OK. There was a lot of love in the room. PhotocourtestofWeldersDaughter