The cop who owns a record shop 

Former homicide detective spends his retirement traveling the world and selling vinyl. Ava Stieler | Lariat

The Rasta-Cowboy Records owner can’t wait to go on his month-long African safari. Tom Serafin stands behind the checkout counter of his shop as he speaks about his upcoming adventure. 

 “The neat thing about having a store and being a one-person shop is that several times a year I put a sign on the door that says ‘gone to get vinyl’ and I go and travel the world,” he says. 

But embarking on an African safari isn’t out of the ordinary for Serafin. He has plans to swim with the whales in New Zealand, work at a sea turtle rescue in Costa Rica, and live in Hawaii for a year, to name a few. 

“The only thing I’m missing is the trek with the gorillas,” he says, “you know where you go walking up with them, and I’ll do that next year.” 

Rasta-Cowboy Records is packed floor to ceiling with vinyl, CDs, cassettes your parents once had, books, classic 1980s movies, collectable action figures, clothes and other various items Serafin has collected from his travels. But he buys nothing in bulk, he only takes what he can carry with him and what he knows his customers back home will enjoy. 

Serafin points at a wall behind himself of framed Rolling Stones posters. He bought them in Cuba and gave 19 away before somebody asked if he knew how much they were worth. 

 “They go for $500 a piece,” he says, laughing. “But I’m like, it’s alright, I know who I gave them to and they all love them.” 

Serafin joined the Marine Corps straight out of highschool, and afterwards spent the next 33 years as a police officer for the Santa Ana Police Department. It was a job he had decided on at a young age because of the medical and dental benefits, as well as an early retirement. Serefin spent two years patrolling, and the rest working in detectives, mostly homicide. 

The last seven years of his law enforcement career were spent “developing, locating, and building an afterschool program for kids,” he says. After his retirement, he continued this work as the director of a summer camp for at-risk youth in Sequoia National Forest.  

Each summer, Serafin recruited 300 kids and fundraised for them to attend the camp free of charge. There, he taught them about life skills like goal setting and introduced them to nature. He opened Rasta-Cowboy Records during the third year, and when his contract ended after five years at the camp, he decided to start selling records full time. 

Serafin pauses momentarily to flip the Carol King record playing throughout the store. It’s early afternoon, and he’s been at the shop for about four hours. Every morning he comes in two hours before opening and inspects the new records, cassette tapes and CDs, making sure they play clean. 

The ones that are scratched or damaged go into a pile which he donates to art students to use. He tries to find the balance to keep the shop from becoming too overcrowded. When he opened the shop 10 years ago, it was to sell his personal collection of about 2,000 records, which grew to 80,000 in no time. 

Despite all this inventory, Serafin doesn’t have a website. 

 “I don’t sell anything online, I do no internet presence other than social media,” he says. “Because the whole reason is to get me out of the house and converse and meet people.” 

Serafin smiles as he talks about his regular customers at the shop. Some stop by to chat, a few bring their dog for treats Serafin keeps handy and others come in to actually collect vinyl.  

“One of my favorite things is the musical theater students,” he says. “They come in and they’ll find an album and you can hear them in the corner just going gaga over something, and I always offer to play it- if they’ll sing along.” 

On the side, he uses profits from the store to give scholarships to music students. He currently gives out three a year, and is aiming for four soon. He plans on increasing that number as the store continues to do better. 

Serafin measures his life’s success in terms of happiness.  

“It’s not about your bank account, it’s not about goals,” he says. “As long as you’re happy and content in your heart, that’s success.” 

His other interest outside of music, traveling and going to concerts is photography. His photos are framed all throughout the shop. 

 “Here at the store I photograph all the dogs that come in,” the former officer says, laughing as he grabs his phone. “And cats. Cat people bring cats in, I’ve had one person bring a goose in.” 

 He turns his phone around to show a photo of a dog wearing a raincoat.  

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