2:37 PM PT -- THIS STORY HAS A HAPPY ENDING!!!
Prime has been reunited with his beloved boombox ... after a city-wide search for the prized possession.
There was a handwritten note alongside the returned keepsake ... which read, "Man they wild. They say they didn't know but I ain't trippin over no bread."
"Just please bring back hope 2 Jackson ... a winning season would be great."
Sanders thanks the city of Jackson for coming together to find the boombox ... saying, "I love y’all and y’all proved me right. I bet on y’all and y’all came thru. I love all y’all and especially the HOOD!"
Deion Sanders says a priceless boombox was stolen from his truck early Monday morning ... and now, he's offering a reward with the hopes of getting the piece back.
Prime -- who's now the head football coach at Jackson State -- says at 5:37 AM, a white suburban pulled up to his car at a hotel in Jackson, Miss. and broke into his black, Ford F350.
Deion says the scumbag smashed out his window ... and took a boombox that was VERY valuable to him.
"I'm a little disturbed," Deion said in a video message this week. "Because the boombox has a sentimental value."
Sanders added, "Somebody that's very special and dear to me gave me that as a birthday gift. And I want that back."
Deion says he's now offering an unspecified reward for the music-playing device ... explaining he doesn't care about the damage to his truck or anything else.
"Please, find my boombox," Deion said. "Streets, please, find my boombox."
We reached out to the Jackson Police Dept. over the incident ... and a spokesperson tells us they're on the hunt for the suspect, adding the white suburban is a "suspect vehicle that we've been looking for a while now."
Originally published 7:45 -- AM PT