Another instrument worth more than $2,000 was stolen from the Department of Music last weekend as students await security improvements for the basement of Phillips Hall.

At least $20,000 worth of musical instruments has been stolen from music department lockers since winter break in December and January. None have been recovered.

Freshman Ned Childs said he left his trumpet in his music department locker last Thursday and found it and his lock missing Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. He notified the secretary in the department office of the theft, and was referred to University Police Department.

He said UPD then turned him over to Metropolitan Police Department. He filed a report with MPD but said he was told “not to expect it to be found.”

Childs bought his Bach Stradovarius trumpet, a horn valued at $2,300, at Rayburn Music in Boston after his freshman year in high school.

Childs said he had a “really good lock” on the locker, and that it was more convenient to store the trumpet in the locker than carry it around.

“Of all the lockers, how could they pick mine to steal something from?” he said.

He said his trumpet instructor, Professor Robert Birch, advised him not to store the trumpet in the Academic Center hallway after the first wave of thefts in January, but he felt it would now be safe because “there hadn’t been any thefts in awhile.”

“I gave a copy of the police report to the company who insures my trumpet,” he said. “I plan on calling them this week to make sure it is covered.”

Childs said Department of Music interim Chair Laura Youens was “very helpful” and told him she would contact him soon.

Childs said he plans to buy a new trumpet when he returns to his hometown of Newton, Mass.

He said he will not take any action against the University to obtain compensation for the theft unless his insurance company refuses to cover the cost.