Missouri musician pleads for help to find $22,000 flute he left on a train in Chicago

Donald Rabin has been playing the flute for 11 years. He says the instrument is an extension of himself, “like another limb, it’s like an organ,” he told CNN.

But now the 23-year-old St. Louis native feels like a vital piece of him is missing.

His prized $22,000 flute — left to him by his grandmother — didn’t make it off a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train on Friday, according to the outlet.

Rabin said in a Facebook post he departed the train at Logan Square.

It was a whirlwind as Rabin wrangled his bags, hurrying to catch a Lyft, WBBM reported.

But he soon realized he’d left the flute behind, wedged between the seat and the train wall.

Rabin ran back down the stairs, his heart racing, but he came up empty. He reported the flute lost to Chicago Police and the CTA, according to WBBM, and has since spent hours riding Blue Line trains hoping to find it.

“I’m just really scared that somebody had, like, tried to sell it or whatever — and it means a lot to me,” he told the outlet.

Rabin described the flute as being in a black rectangular bag with a strap.

The flute, made by Boston outfit Haynes and Company, has a gold headjoint with a silver body and footjoint, Rabin said.

“It’s a professional flute that, when my grandmother died, this was part of the inheritance that I received, and so I like to take that little bit with me whenever I go play the flute,” Rabin told WBBM.

He was heading back to school at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he’s a graduate student, when he lost the flute, according to CNN.

All he wants is to find it.

“The flute is my livelihood and I’m trying every possible thing I can do to get it back,” Rabin wrote, adding, “I’m desperate to find it because it is my joy, career and sole passion in this world.”

He said he’s still working with the authorities to track down the instrument, CNN reported.

Rabin returned to school Tuesday but hopes that if anyone finds it, they will return it to CTA authorities or Chicago police, according to WBBM.

“I just hope that a kind soul is out there with my instrument,” he wrote, telling WBBM, “Everybody makes mistakes, and I feel like this was a great learning opportunity for the other musicians out there.”