A man was arrested after stealing hard drives containing unreleased Tom Petty music, according to TMZ.

The theft took place from a storage unit in San Fernando Valley, Calif., and included the removal of more than $100,000 worth of guitars, other instruments and a gun. The report added that “police caught a suspect who confessed to the crime. He’s been arrested for burglary. Even better … our source say they’ve recorded the hard drives and the guns. As for the instruments – we’re told cops are running down some leads.”

Two posthumous Petty albums have been released following his death in 2017. An American Treasure, a 60-track box set of unreleased material, was followed by the hits compilation The Best of Everything. It’s been noted that the release of an extended edition of 1994's Wildflowers has been delayed as a result of disputes between the late artist’s widow and two daughters.

Just before his death, Petty discussed his passion for work. “If I don’t have a project going, I don’t feel like I’m connected to anything,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t even think it’s that healthy for me. I like to get out of bed and have a purpose.”

He noted that it's "kind of a lonely work. … I compare it to fishing: There’s either a fish in the boat or there’s not. Sometimes you come home and you didn’t catch anything, and sometimes you caught a huge fish. But that was the work part of it to me. … I just remember being excited when I had a song done, and I knew I had a song in my pocket. I always felt really excited about it.”

 

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