DJ gets stolen £10k vinyl back after chance meeting

Andy Baillie is a happy man after getting his records back. Picture: Comp

Andy Baillie lost around 250 valuable Soul and Rock ‘n’ Roll singles when he misplaced them following a DJ’ing gig in Edinburgh nine months ago.

The loss of his collection – which took more than 30 years to amass and is worth £10,000 – left the 50-year-old music enthusiast devastated.

Andy, from Edinburgh, said: “I was doing a gig on the High Street [in Edinburgh] and I left the box outside. I ended up getting distracted and someone swiped them. I reported them as lost, but the chances of getting them back were remote.

“I thought about them every day, it was like the end of a relationship. I started collecting them when I was 17.

“The most I paid for an original was £10-15, but their value doesn’t depreciate. It would have cost me about £10,000 to replace them.”

But Andy has now been reunited with his “irreplaceable” singles collection after a chance meeting with a musician who had, incredibly, been given the records by an elderly neighbour who had found them dumped near a recycling bin.

Andy got chatting to musician Aidan O’Rourke as the pair made their way down the capital’s Royal Mile at around 4am on 21 March and he began to regale the fiddle player of his tale of woe concerning his prized collection.

But the DJ was left stunned when Aidan suddenly stopped him in his tracks and told him: “I’ve got your records in my house”.

Musician Aiden, who plays in folk outfit Lau, had been handed the stunning collection by an elderly neighbour who found them lying beside a recycling bin.

Aiden said: “About six months ago I got a note through my door from a neighbour saying he had found the records and if I fancied any of them just to take them.

“But when I saw the collection I knew someone must be looking for them as they are in an immaculate condition. I’m a musician myself and I have friends who have lost instruments before and know how devastating it can be.

“I tried my best to find the owner by advertising and going to the police, but after six months I thought that was it.”

“I had an album under my arm and as I made my way home at about 4am after having a few drinks with pals I got chatting to this complete stranger in the street.

“We began talking about music, something we both had in common, when he suddenly told me about losing his beloved record collection and had been depressed ever since.

“He told me he took about 30 years to collect all those records and when I told him I think I have your records in the house he almost keeled over.

“He didn’t believe me at first and, to be honest, neither did I as it is such an incredible coincidence.

“He was so happy about being reunited with the vinyl collection he was actually kissing them. I’m just so glad I didn’t get rid of them by selling them on eBay or something like that.”

The record haul features the likes of Buddy Ace’s True Love, Money Can’t Buy, The Hurt by BB King and a copy of Darrow Fletcher’s ultra-rare My Young Misery.

The story has since gone viral on social media with record enthusiasts from across the world posting messages of congratulations on Andy’s Facebook page.

Andy added: “I hadn’t been on Facebook, but people were phoning me up telling me they’d heard about it. Every record has a story to it for me – it’s hard to even think how to repay him.”