tumbling piano

[Joseph Alkana]

At 09:21 AM 8/22/96 -0800, you wrote:
>Dave,
>	Chuck Schuitt of Sioux City once told me a similar story about a
>high school in South Dakota.  He was called out to do an estimate one
>day on a Steinway D for insurance purposes.  When he showed up at the
>high school, he found that someone had rolled the S&S D off the stage
>out into the pit.  His estimate was high including a complete rebuild.
>But the story had a happy ending.
>	It turned out that the music dept. and the athletic dept. had not
>been getting along very well for some time.  Several "football stars" (if
>there is such a thing) had broken in and did the damage.  They found this
>out during the investigation.  Several football players were permanently
>expelled, put up on criminal charges and insurance had to pay for the
>rebuild.  The music dept. had been budgeting a rebuild for several years
>and could never get it approved on capital outlay.  They ended up with a
>free rebuild and the troublemakers were gone.
>
>Ron Shiflet
>
>
>What a way to start the day!I came in this
>morning to find one of our S&S Ds on its lid in
>the concert hall.  While I'm waiting for te
>university police to show up, I'd like to know if
>anyone has dealt with this situation before, what
>damage to look for etc.  I plan to roll it onto a 9'
>skid this afternoon,after I pull the hinge pins and
>lyre, then onto its legs.  It fell about 4'. The only
>obvious damage so far is to the lid and prop
>stick, though I expect I'll find more when I set it
>up.  I'll let everyone know what I find.
>David Graham, RPT
>dgraham@niu.edu
>
>
>--------- End forwarded message ----------
>
>Pardon my comments in advance if you all deem them too vituperative,BUT!

It really frosts me when people say that "the insurance took care of
everything"  and, " I got it for free." Excuse me, but that is exactly one
of the reasons  why insurance rates keep going up and up. Yeah, sure, the
school got their rebuild pretty fortuitously, but I say that the
perpetrators of that debacle should be made to reimburse the insurance
company as part of their punishment. Just think, now that the school has
their piano redone they can raise their tuition rates to cover the increased
insurance premiums for next year.

Musings of a former accounting type
Joseph Alkana  RPT