After reading this I couldn't help but remember an interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (on the BBC world service in 1980) where John was talking about Phil Spector calling him up after a recording session saying:

whispering over the phone "John....I've got the tapes...I've got the tapes, but there are helicopters flying around my house"

It took them a while to get them back from the guy.