Jake and Spike: Drum sets stolen from Poison band member worth $100K recovered

Five drum sets belonging to Rikki Rockett, drummer of the legendary rock band Poison, that were worth about $100,000 were stolen and recovered days later. The person who was holding the drums, told KIRO Newsradio’s “The Jake and Spike Show” the whole story before Christmas.

Donn Bennett owns Donn’s Drum Vault out of Bellevue. It’s billed on his website as, “the largest inventory of rare and vintage drums in the world.”

“I started out having a drum school,” Bennett said to hosts Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill. “I taught drums because I played drums and I was just always into the drums of my favorite drummers. And as that school evolved, it turned into a store.”

From there, he was fortunate enough to begin working with some of famous drummers and the business evolved.

“Eventually, I was starting to deal with some of my favorite drummers, and through that … we’d start talking and we’d start trading drums and a lot of these guys would be very happy to pay for the stuff they were buying with their old drums, which … is great for them,” Bennett said. “They got rid of their stuff. I got stuff. Everyone was happy.”

Bennett has worked some of the most famous drummers in the world, including Ringo Starr of the Beatles, Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones before his death and Steve Gadd, who has an extensive discography.

He also works with Rikki Rockett of the heavy metal band Poison, known for such late ’80s and early ’90s hits as “Talk Dirty to Me” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

In early December, some people broke into a storage unit Bennett owns and stole five Rikki Rockett drum sets.

Bennett didn’t think the thieves knew exactly what they had stolen.

“Our guess is that they must have been in the complex and (saw) me loading a bunch of drums into this and thinking that you know, ‘OK, we could get some money for that,'” Bennett said to Jake and Spike. “I’m virtually certain they didn’t know they were Ricky rockets poison drum sets.”

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From there, Bennett said he put out a bunch of “blasts” on Facebook trying to get people in the Seattle music community to keep an eye out for the drums.

“Fortunately, I’m friends with just about every musician in the northwest,” Bennett said.

“You’re a nice guy,” Spike responded.

Andy Emery, who works with drums at the Tukwila Guitar Center, saw Bennett’s Facebook post and reached out saying that people trying to sell him the drums. That store buys rare or vintage drums from members of the public who have something to sell, KING 5 noted.

The next day, the thieves brought the drums back since Emery told them he needed to see the drums.

“So, he saw them. He very cleverly and coolly stepped away for a second. He called me. And also called (the police),” Bennett said. “He did an amazing job of keeping the whole scene cool and everybody relaxed.”

Bennett went on to say a firm cash number the thieves were set to receive for the drums wasn’t set. But it was clear they weren’t going to get anything close to the $100,000 they were worth.

“I don’t know, but I can tell you that they went to a a record store in Federal Way the day before and tried to sell them — and we only found this out afterwards — they tried to sell (the drums) for $500,” Bennett said.

“Obviously, they didn’t know what they had,” Jake responded.

Thanks to Emery’s cool behavior, the thieves stayed at the store until King County Sheriff’s Office deputies showed up at the scene.

After a brief chase that saw them end up in the parking lot of the nearby REI, the suspects were arrested and the drums were recovered.

Rockett is active on Facebook and had been reacting to the developments as they became known. When he heard about the drum sets being recovered, he responded succinctly.

“Drum thieves caught! Bam!!!” he wrote online.

According to KING 5, Bennett said the stolen drums were recovered in perfect condition. He called the outcome “miraculous.”

“I’m still so fortunate,” Bennett said to Jake and Spike.

Head here or tap on the player below to hear the entire interview on “The Jake and Spike Show.”

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.