stolen tools - security

[Ron Nossaman]

My condolences. Things shouldn't be this difficult, but most always are. 
And there shouldn't be creeps to have to deal with, but there always are. 
The other side of this situation is what I ran into (yet again) this week. 
A newer practice room, containing nothing but a piano - just like all the 
other practice rooms, is kept locked (unlike the older practice rooms). 
This, naturally, effectively prevents anyone from actually using the thing 
as a practice room. I have no idea why it was built like this, but it 
probably was the result of an award winning design study of some sort that 
cost tens of thousands of dollars and brought experts in from thousands of 
miles away. When the piano ensconced within is up on the wheel for tuning, 
the room is unlocked, and I may or may not get there before the crack 
security team has made rounds and locked it up tight again - necessitating 
my chasing down someone with a key to let me in to tune this otherwise 
universally inaccessible piano. As this happened yet again the other day, 
with the keeper of the keys complaining that they have asked countless 
times that the room be left unlocked, I asked him - noting that I have 
tools handy - if he would like the room to be un-lockable.

After tuning the piano, I removed the handle inside the room, pulled the 
bolts holding the lock assembly onto the door, and removed the striker. 
Reassembling the lock assembly and re-installing the inside handle left the 
thing looking like it always had, but incapable of latching whether it was 
locked or not. On the way to the next piano, I stopped by and left the 
striker and mounting screws with the keeper of the keys, who was delighted.

After tuning that next piano, I went back and checked that practice room, 
and found that the crack security team had already re-locked the door they 
had been requested repeatedly to leave unlocked. Jiggling the handle 
indicated a locked door, but pushing on the door told a different story. I 
wonder how long it will take the crack security team to discover that the 
locked door won't latch...

I whish I could be there watching when it happens. I also wonder how many 
students won't be able to get in to practice because they will try the 
handle without pushing on the door, and will assume they are locked out.

Entertainment is, indeed, where you find it.
Ron N