The theft of musical instruments, especially for gig musicians, is always devastating, and they have my complete sympathy, not that sympathy makes up for much.

There are ways for gigging musicians to secure instruments inside their ways to prevent theft, one very good one being the investment of large, locked boxes like those that carpenters use.

And I DO hope that insurance will at least allow the musicians to replace their instruments with new ones. At the moment, it will seem as though the new instruments won't be able to replace what was stolen, that often turns out not to be the case (I'm an eternal optimist, especially when this sort of thing comes at a time of year when many musicians earn a large part of their annual income).