Sheriff’s Deputy Arrested for Stealing Teacher’s Trumpet

The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Investigators Bureau arrested a Sheriff’s Deputy on Friday, Dec. 20 for allegedly stealing a middle school band director’s trumpet from a Millbrae hotel and throwing it out of a moving car window, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Sheriff Deputy Brandon Hatt will appear in court on Jan. 28 for one count of grand theft, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Parkway Heights Middle School band director Jesse Mathews gave his own account of the night’s events through his Patch blog, which Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti verified.

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Mathews was playing with the group Curt Yagi and the People Standing Behind Me at the Aloft Hotel in Millbrae Thursday night.

During the set, a group of local sheriff deputies were also at the hotel, one being particularly loud.

Once the set was over, Mathews noticed that his trumpet, worth about $2,000, and the jacket, around $200, were missing. The hotel called the police on Mathews’ behalf and an officer arrived on the scene.

The officer apologized to Mathews for the other deputies’ behavior and he said that the other deputies told him they threw the trumpet out of the window of their car around Taylor and Magnolia Avenue in Millbrae.

The reporting officer couldn’t locate the trumpet after a search.

Later that night, Mathews continued the search and found the trumpet in someone’s driveway a block from the reported location.

Sheriff deputy Brandon Hatt was out on a $10,000 bail.

Mathews’ trumpet is being held indefinitely as evidence. Meanwhile, a store in Oakland rented Mathews a professional model trumpet.  

Read more: Patch users share their opinions about the incident here and what course of action the county should take. 

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