Brobst of the Brobst Violin Shop wrote to the court to describe how Meng’s theft impacted the business his grandfather and father founded in 1963. His father, now 90, and mother, 89, still run ...

Strobel Jr. said he also keeps the shop, started in 1985, going out of respect for his father’s legacy. His father grew up in a poor family in Tell City, Indiana, and learned to play the violin ...

The shop shipped him an 1823 violin valued at $175,000, another from 1903 worth $55,000 and three bows worth $5,000, the officials said. The man, Mark Meng, 58, of Irvine, ...