Saskatchewan“It’s like finding a long lost friend,” says Michael Raney, a Saskatoon resident who was reunited with his stolen tuba — nearly six years after it went missing. Tuba recovered by Saskatoon police with no damageAlex Kozroski · CBC News · Posted: Oct 19, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours agoMichael Raney says he expected his tuba to be returned destroyed, but police found it in nearly the same condition as when it was lost six years ago. (Submitted by Michael Raney)“It’s like finding a long lost friend.”Those are the words of Michael Raney, a Saskatoon resident who has been reunited with his stolen tuba, more than six years after it went missing.Raney bought the tuba for $10,000 in 2005 with the help of his parents. The silver-plated Yamaha professional series tuba helped Raney as he majored in music at the University of Saskatchewan, where he specialized in tuba performance. In February of 2019, he returned from a brass band rehearsal with the tuba, along with a second, smaller one in the back of his car.“It was so cold that my locks on my vehicle froze open. I didn’t realize it,” Raney told host Peter Mills on CBC Radio’s The 306. “I hit the switch, but they did not lock, and when I got to my vehicle the next day, both the tubas were gone.”This wasn’t the first time that the tuba was taken from Raney. A couple years after he bought it, the instrument was taken from his car and found stashed in a nearby shed the same day. However, the second time, that thief did a better job of hiding it. Raney said he couldn’t even receive insurance for it, as he used it for paid gigs. But then, almost six years after he was informed the homeowner’s insurance didn’t cover the cost, he received another call.“I got a call from the exact same adjuster from SGI that processed the claim back in 2019,” said Raney. “He called me and said, ‘Believe it or not, we found your tuba. The Saskatoon police found it in an abandoned apartment and it’s hanging around the police station, and they would like it to go.’”LISTEN | Saskatoon man finds his stolen tuba after six years:The 3067:09Saskatoon man finds his stolen tuba after nearly six yearsMichael Raney, a Saskatoon resident, joins The 306 to talk about how the Saskatoon police found his lost tuba in an abandoned apartment after nearly six years.Raney said he was “absolutely dumbfounded.” “There was a part of me that honestly had moved on and forgot about it, even though I always held out hope. And all of a sudden, it was unbelievable.” Raney said the first thing he did when he picked it up was take it to a music repair store to get it thoroughly cleaned.“It’s looking fantastic,” said Raney. “My expectation was that it would be flat, and people have been jumping on it, or tossing it out of the vehicle. But it is almost exactly the way that I last had it.”Now, Raney is picking up right where he left off so long ago. He said the first tune he played was the old A&W theme song. Although the second tuba was never found, Raney said he is still ecstatic about the recovery.Soon afterward, he was asked to play in the North Saskatchewan Wind Symphony.”It was such a joyful event,” he said, “to be able to play with all the people that I remembered from before.”WATCH | Michael Raney plays his recovered tuba:Saskatoon man plays tuba recovered 6 years after it was stolenMichael Raney stopped performing music after his tuba, worth $10,000, was stolen from his car in 2019. Now, six years later, police found the undamaged tuba in an abandoned apartment and Raney is back to performing in a symphony.ABOUT THE AUTHORAlex Kozroski is a reporter with CBC News in Regina. He has also worked as a reporter for Golden West Broadcasting in Swift Current, Sask.With files from The 306
Musician delighted by ‘unbelievable’ recovery of tuba stolen 6 years earlier in Saskatoon
