Back in brass: Saskatoon musician’s tuba returned after six years

It vanished on a freezing February morning in 2019 — a professional-grade tuba, quietly lifted from the back of a vehicle and swallowed by the Saskatoon winter.

No witnesses. No suspects.

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For Michael Raney, the theft didn’t just take away an instrument; it took the music out of his life altogether.

“I didn’t play in any band after that,” he said, a forlorn look in his eyes. “Not at all.”

The tuba is no ordinary horn. It’s a Yamaha 800 Series in C — silver-plated brass, with five valves and intricate tubing.

Most tubas have three valves,” Raney said. “This one has five, and that’s extremely intricate work. That’s probably where a lot of the value comes from.”

Listen to the story on Behind the Headlines:

Intricate, rare and built for professionals, the Yamaha 800 series tuba features five valves and silver-plated brass. Against the odds, it survived its time in the shadows. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Raney’s tuba is top of the line, built for professional performances. In 2005, as a university music student, he bought it used from another student in Regina. The price tag was $10,000.

“I couldn’t afford that at the time,” he said. “My parents fronted the money. I didn’t have an instrument of my own and I was a music major. That was a lot of money back then, and still is. To replace it today? I’d say anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000.”

Raney played that tuba for more than a decade in bands, at gigs and rehearsals, until that brutally cold day in February of 2019.

“The locks on my vehicle had frozen open. I didn’t realize it,” Raney said, a tinge of regret still lingering in his voice all these years later. “And unfortunately I had two tubas in the back. One for the Saskatoon Brass Band and this one.”

By morning, both were gone. And to make matters worse, when he filed an insurance claim, it was denied.

“Back when it was stolen, I was asked if I’d ever done a paid gig with that tuba,” Raney recalled. “I answered honestly — ‘Yeah, I did one.’ Just one. But that meant I didn’t have the right insurance. I had homeowner’s insurance, not professional.”

That meant no payout and no tuba. Just a very expensive case of bad luck.

Months passed. Then years. Raney gave up playing entirely. The tuba, as far as anyone knew, was gone.

Then, last fall — nearly six years later — his phone rang.

“It was the same SGI adjuster from 2019,” Raney recalled. “He said, ‘Believe it or not, we’ve recovered your tuba!’ It had turned up in an abandoned apartment. The police didn’t want it hanging around their station anymore, so they asked me to come pick it up.”

Naturally, he did. And then — not taking any chances — he brought it straight to Kevin Junk, an instrument repair technician in Saskatoon.

“I said, ‘Please use the strongest chemicals you have to clean this out. I don’t know what this went through,’” Raney laughed.

After his tuba was stolen in 2019, Raney gave up playing. Now that it has returned, he has finally made his way back to the stage. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

He said the tuba was in remarkably good condition.

“I was expecting it to be flattened — thrown from a vehicle, jumped on, who knows?” Raney said. “But it came out of that ordeal in great shape.”

And, believe it or not, this wasn’t the tuba’s first brush with the criminal underworld. The instrument had been stolen once before, in 2006, from the back of another vehicle.

“That time, we got it back within a day or so. Whoever took it only went a few blocks and stashed it in someone’s backyard shed,” Raney recalled.

A bit of a wanderer, this tuba.

Naturally, you have to wonder why anyone would steal a bulky brass instrument. Raney believes it may have initially been a case of mistaken identity.

“I don’t think people realize what it is when they see it in the soft case. It probably looks like hockey gear,” he said. “But there aren’t many of these in the country. Even if I hadn’t registered the serial number — which I did — it’s not the kind of thing you can easily sell.”

Finally, after six silent years, the instrument is back where it belongs. More importantly, so is Raney.

“Before it was stolen, I was playing regularly. Afterward, I gave it up entirely,” he said. “Now that I’ve got it back, I’m looking forward to playing in bands again.”

The prodigal horn returns, but with a new rule: no more unsupervised adventures.

“It’s certainly not taking any road trips in my vehicle anytime soon,” Raney said with a smile. “Hopefully it decides to stick around for a while this time.”

Michael Raney’s tuba vanished on a cold winter’s night in 2019. After being recovered in an abandoned apartment more than half a decade later, the instrument has been reunited with its rightful owner. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)