VANCOUVER -- Mounties in Chilliwack say they have recovered a guitar belonging to B.C. rock band 54-40 that was stolen more than two years ago.

Police found the guitar while executing a search warrant at an apartment in Surrey that they believed to be connected to a break-in in Chilliwack earlier this month, RCMP said in a news release.

The break-in was reported in the early evening on Jan. 15 at a home in the 47000 block of Mountain Park Drive, according to police.

The home was "ransacked," police said in their release, noting that electronic devices and vehicle key fobs had been stolen.

Two days later, thieves struck the home a second time, taking a family vehicle in the process, police said. Officers recovered the stolen vehicle the same day in the 9400 block of Victor Street in central Chilliwack.

Shortly after the initial break-in, Chilliwack RCMP and the Surrey RCMP Gang Enforcement Team were able to link the crime to a person, vehicle and apartment in Surrey, police said.

On Jan. 19, officers executed a search warrant at the Surrey apartment, which is near the intersection of 137 Street and 107A Avenue, according to RCMP.

Inside, police found electronics, jewelry, luggage, key fobs and clothing reported stolen during the Jan. 15 break-in, as well as lots of other items that had been reported stolen in Chilliwack between March 2020 and earlier this month.

The other stolen items seized included insurance documents, credit cards, firearms and ammunition, personal documents and electric scooters, as well as the stolen guitar, police said.

In all, the recovered items are worth more than $70,000, police said.

Seven guitars belonging to 54-40 were stolen from a cube van parked in New Westminster in October 2018. Five of them were recovered a few days later, but two remained missing.

At the time of the thefts, guitarist Dave Genn called the instruments "priceless," because of their sentimental value. 

In January 2019, New Westminster police sought and received an arrest warrant for Yannick Lepage, then 39, who was the tenant of the Surrey storage locker where five of the seven guitars were found.  

Chilliwack RCMP said they arrested two people while executing the Surrey search warrant last week. Those people were later released, and police have not shared their names.

Police said they would review the evidence in the case and forward it to the BC Prosecution Service for an assessment of criminal charges.