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Northern Soul: Warning for thieves who took £250k of rare vinyl

Ted Massey Ted MasseyTed Massey
A popular DJ and collector, Mr Massey plays gigs around the country

Burglars who stole £250,000 worth of rare vinyl have been warned they have "nowhere to hide" from the "close knit" Northern Soul community.

A £14,600 reward is being offered for their return after the Birmingham home of Northern Soul DJ Ted Massey was broken into after a gig in Nottingham.

Gig promoter Mick Heffernan said the reward was an incentive for one of the burglars to "spill the beans" about where they have been taken.

West Midlands Police is investigating.

Supplied Mick HeffernanSupplied
Mr Heffernan said people had donated up to £1,000 to the fundraising page

Mr Heffernan, who promoted the gig at The Rose and Crown pub in Lenton, organised a push for donations, which will form the reward for the records' return.

"We've had a couple of anonymous donations of £1,000," he told the BBC.

"We put the reward out to entice those involved for one of them to come forward and spill the beans on one of their fellow villains.

"Those records were Ted's life and a lot of collectors and DJs with those type of records are in the same boat - it's their life.

"It's a very close knit community in the Northern Soul movement - when something like this happens, we all rally together and that's the beauty of this scene.

"For the perpetrators, there's no place to hide for these records so I'd urge you to return these records to Ted."

'Irreplaceable' collection

Mr Massey previously said burglars broke into his Birmingham home and demanded he handed over the records he had played during a set earlier in the day on 26 February.

Two men then ran up his stairs, one of them pushing his way into the bedroom, before demanding he hand over the two boxes of records.

Radio presenter and Northern Soul DJ Richard Searling said the records were "totally irreplaceable".

"These are artefacts, antiques, rarities," he said.

"So many of these great records were included in those boxes so I've had a look through and whilst I'm not an expert, I'd say it's north of £250,000, probably touching £350,000."

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