Man Claims $1,269 Cash and Musical Instruments

At first, officers at the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley station thought it was a joke.

But seeing was believing Sunday morning when a man named Sikowsky Baytoeben walked through the station house door and claimed a trumpet, a violin and $1,269 in cash, which he said he lost Saturday in Canoga Park.

A Los Angeles man, David Chrisman, found Baytoeben’s violin and trumpet in cases lying next to a trash bin behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Sherman Way.

Inside the violin case Chrisman discovered a wallet containing $1,269 and a six-inch hunting knife. He turned his find into police, who, upon seeing identification cards that listed the owner’s name as Sikowsky Baytoeben, professed more than a little skepticism about the incident.

Baytoeben, described by police as a transient about 60 years old, produced several pieces of identification Sunday, Officer Don Banta said. Police handed over his instruments, but Baytoeben will have to return today to retrieve the money.

Baytoeben reported the lost property to Los Angeles police either Saturday or early Sunday, according to Banta. He said Baytoeben apparently left his instruments at the site of a temporary job. Someone apparently found the battered cases and carried them to a trash bin, where they were found by Chrisman.