10 Amusing Tales of Lost and Stolen Celebrity Items

Many good things come with fame, but it is not without its downsides. Many people lose the respect that they would normally have for another person’s privacy, personal space, and possessions if that person is a celebrity. When famous people’s belongings fall into the hands of others by theft or accident, the chances of finding them again are slim.

Many are likely sold or kept as conversation pieces. If they are found again, it is often much later, and there is usually an interesting tale about what happened. Here are ten fascinating and fortunate stories of celebrities’ lost items that were lost and found again.

Related: 10 Celebrities That Have Been Arrested at Their Own Performance

10 Paul McCartney Got His Beatles Bass Back After 51 Years

While celebrities such as actors might have valuable items like cars and jewelry, these tend not to be unique, and so perhaps are not as valuable as items clearly linked to somebody famous. But musicians tend to have signature instruments that they take with them wherever they go, and there are predictably lots of cases of them being stolen. While they are often never seen again, Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles was lucky enough to have one of his treasured bass guitars returned to him in 2024, a whopping 51 years after it was stolen from a van in London.

The guitar in question was a Höfner 500/1, which he bought in 1961 and played on notable Beatles recordings, including “Love Me Do.” It was found by the Lost Bass project, which located the bass in a family’s attic in Sussex, UK, with help from journalists and tip-offs from the public. Although it took more than half a century to get Sir Paul’s bass back in the hands of its rightful owner, the project actually took less than a month to solve what has been called “the greatest mystery in the history of rock and roll.”^[1]

9 Slash Finally Paid for His Iconic Top Hat in 2005

Another musician who has been the victim of theft is Slash, who is part of the rock bands Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. It was while he attended the 2005 Grammy Awards with the latter group that he was robbed. But instead of his instrument, the thief went for something else that is just as integral to the guitarist’s iconic image—his top hat.

Slash adopted the unique look back in 1985 because he felt that it looked cool, but it became a mainstay when he found that wearing it helped calm his nerves in front of crowds. Slash was planning to have a replacement made when a man claiming to have the hat was interviewed on an LA radio station.

Although Slash was skeptical about the man’s story of how he acquired it, the man was given a “small reward” and returned the hat. But the irony in this tale comes from the fact that Slash never paid for the first hat he donned in 1985. He stole it from a shop in LA, along with a belt that he wrapped around it to create the unique headpiece.^[2]

8 Margaret O’Brien Spent Her Life Searching for Her Stolen Juvenile Oscar

Margaret O’Brien was only a child when she starred alongside Judy Garland in the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis, but her well-received performance earned her an accolade that only 12 people have ever been given—a “Juvenile” Academy Award. This Oscar was handed out occasionally between 1935 and 1961 to honor outstanding performances by youngsters. The category was created to prevent any awkwardness that might be created by pitting children against adult actors.

The rare award obviously held a lot of sentimental value for its young recipients, including O’Brien. When hers was stolen by a cleaner shortly after she won it, the Academy replaced it, but she spent much of her free time searching for the original. She was known to scour auctions and antique fairs in case it ever turned up.

It turns out that she was looking in the right places because, eventually, it did turn up at an auction in 1995. The cleaners’ children hoped to sell it, but auctioneers needed to seek permission from the Academy in order to sell any awards. The Academy alerted O’Brien and returned the Oscar to its rightful owner.^[3]

7 Keanu Reeves’s Stolen Rolex Turned Up on a Different Continent

While only a fool would try to steal from the super-tough assassin that he plays, John Wick actor Keanu Reeves has been the victim of break-ins and burglaries several times. Back in 2014, his home was even targeted by intruders two days in a row. In both of those cases, they were women who were caught by police and taken for mental evaluation, but in December 2023, the actor’s home was again targeted, this time by multiple men in ski masks.

Fortunately, Reeves was not home at the time, but the gang escaped before the police could arrive. At the time, it was reported that they stole a gun, and it was unclear whether they took anything else. A year later, it became clear that they had taken more when a unique Rolex watch turned up during a series of police raids in the Chilean capital of Santiago. The back of it was engraved with a message of thanks to the actor for his work on the John Wick 4 movie. The Chilean authorities confirmed that the watch was the actor’s and set about returning it to him.^[4]

6 A Damien Hirst Painting Was Found on Mars

While Keanu Reeves’s Rolex watch did a fair bit of traveling before it was found again, the distance it covered was nothing compared to one of artist Damien Hirst’s paintings. However, the precious artwork was not stolen. Instead, the artist had contributed it to the Beagle 2 space probe, which was headed to the red planet.

The painting comprised colored dots that could be used to help calibrate the probe’s equipment, and it was created using robust materials that would allow it to remain intact under the harsh conditions of space. They did this very well, as was eventually discovered in 2015, just over 11 years after the probe was launched into space aboard the Mars Express.

The reason for the lengthy gap is not because it takes that long to travel to Mars but because communication with the probe was lost in December 2003 during its descent to the planet’s surface. It was assumed to have been lost or destroyed, but NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted it on the planet’s surface in January 2015. It had survived, along with Hirst’s painting. The artist declared the discovery to be “fantastic news!”^[5]

5 Cuba’s Castros Helped Get Hemingway’s Stolen Nobel Back

When Ernest Hemingway was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature, he did not attend the ceremony in Sweden, but he had a pretty good excuse. He had just that year survived two plane crashes in two days during a vacation to Africa. They were so severe that some newspapers published his obituary. Somehow, he survived, but his injuries meant that traveling to Stockholm was out of the question, so the U.S. ambassador to Sweden attended on his behalf.

After receiving the prestigious 23-karat gold medal, Hemingway planned to make it a gift to the people of Cuba. However, he was not a fan of the ruling Batista dictatorship, so he gifted the medal to Cuba’s Catholic Church instead of the state. It remained in a sanctuary in the small town of El Cobre until 1986, when it was stolen during a break-in.

By that time, the revolutionary regime of the Castro brothers was in charge. They were fans of Hemingway and issued a stern warning to the thieves—”Return the medal within 72 hours or face the consequences. I know who you are.” Needless to say, the medal was swiftly handed back to the church.^[6]

4 Steve Jobs’s Burglar Was Caught Because of iTunes

Hemingway is far from the only celebrity to have had things stolen after his death. It also happened to the legendary Apple founder Steve Jobs, who had the unique distinction of posthumously helping to catch burglars. The events unfolded in 2012 when a burglar broke into the Palo Alto home that had belonged to the late CEO. There was nobody inside at the time because Jobs’s widow was staying elsewhere, but there were still plenty of valuable goods inside.

The burglar made off with necklaces, a watch, five bottles of champagne, and, of course, a number of Apple products. These included an iPad along with two iMacs and iPhones. Police believe that the house was randomly targeted and that the thief was unaware of who it had belonged to, which might explain why he did not try to sell the priceless memorabilia of the late tech visionary. Instead, he signed into his own iTunes account on Steve Jobs’s iPad, leading the authorities straight to him.^[7]

3 Two Boston Airport Employees Tried to Steal Neil Armstrong’s Signature

Despite achieving worldwide fame in 1969 for being the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong was actually rather shy and spent the rest of his life avoiding media interviews and refusing to sign autographs. But Armstrong, like everybody else, still needed to sign documents from time to time, such as customs declaration forms. Stealing and selling them should guarantee a quick payday. At least, that is what two staff at Boston Airport seemed to think in 2010 when they noticed Armstrong returning from a trip overseas.

Instead of filing the late astronaut’s declaration form, they tried to auction it online. Bidding began at a mere $200 but had exceeded $1,000 before the auction was canceled. A federal investigation was opened as it is a crime to steal official government records, and the men were caught and arrested.

The charge could have resulted in as many as 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, but they were let off lightly with probation, although one of them lost the job at the airport that he had held for 20 years.^[8]

2 David Beckham’s Lost Wallet Was Found by Another Sporting Legend

Celebrities are not immune from accidents and mishaps like losing their wallets in the street. The chances of their lost items being returned are slim unless, of course, they are found by another famous figure. But what is the likelihood of that? In a place like Los Angeles, it’s probably better than most people think.

When soccer superstar David Beckham, who had previously played for the local club LA Galaxy, lost his wallet in Beverly Hills, it was found by another sporting legend—Shaquille O’Neal. The NBA star had been taking a stroll when he came across the wallet, which apparently was not an unusual occurrence.

Shaq recounted in 2024 that when he found wallets, he would usually just take the money out and throw it away. However, he saw that this was a nicer wallet than usual and checked the ID inside, discovering that it belonged to Beckham. He promptly rang the soccer star, playfully demanding one million dollars for the wallet’s safe return. However, the footballer saw through the ruse, and Shaq returned the wallet—after taking the money out, of course.^[9]

1 Bangladeshi Protesters Stole the Prime Minister’s Cat, Then Returned It

In 2024, Bangladesh was rocked by violent protests, which saw Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ousted. Her residence was taken over by protesters on August 5, forcing her to flee. As she escaped to India in a helicopter, the residence was looted. People scrambled to get their hands on whatever they could, including valuables like jewelry, clothes, and electronic devices, as well as a guitar, the fridge, and an assortment of live and dead animals like goats and a cat.

However, the protest leaders quickly launched a campaign to return the looted items. It was surprisingly successful, with around 500 items being returned in just a few weeks. These included the cat, a pigeon, cash, jewelry, and a cache of classified documents. One protester who was unable to return his loot—a duck which he had already eaten—gave money back in its stead. Weirdly, 150 mattresses were also returned as a result of the recovery effort.^[10]