I will recommend you file a police report, at least it shows there is such incident happen. Also, try to take some pictures.
CD players can be really cheap nowadays. I have my eyes on couple JVC CD players at Future Shop. One can play mp3 through an USB flash drive, another can play mp3 through a SD card (yes, it has a SD card slot). IIRC, the USB one is around $230, the SD card one is around $300. If you just want a regular CD player, it can be around $140 for a Panasonic or Pioneer CD player.