<HTML>As per my report of a couple of weeks ago, I need to admit that the vandalism to the Concert Hall Steinway was all my fault. After reviewing the facts, and speculating on what happened, there is only one conclusion. It was my lack of foresight that I forced someone one to destroy the piano. As far as we can piece the course of events together, this is what happened. High school students, fresh from a party celebrating graduation, jimmied some locks on the building doors, and entered the building in the early morning hours, (about 2 AM), looking for something to do. On the second floor they found a fire extinguisher, and, wanting to impress our faculty that they had artistic talent, used it to paint the upstairs boys bath room. They then somehow unlocked a drum practice room, and wanting to find out how loud an amplifier could go, turned it on, full volume. In order to let everyone in the building know how that sounds, they found the main electrical panel, and turned off the power to the 2nd floor. When our maintenance people arrived at 5;30, and turned on the power, they heard the effects. Before they left, these talented students found their way onto the stage of the concert hall, where, to their delight, found a piano, with it's lid up. Had I known these talented students wanted to play, I would have left the action in the piano. But since I had to do some work on, I removed it. Well, these poor kids. When they couldn't play the piano, they did the next best thing. Using the tuning hammer I left on the piano, they wanted to see what hitting a string with the tool would sound like. What they discovered was that hitting a string with a tuning hammer, breaks the string, creating a wonderful sound, like a gun shot. Of course, these talented musicians couldn't just hear one gun shot, they wanted to hear more. So they proceeded to hit the strings 12 more times. But some of them must not have had good aim, because they missed the strings, and hit about 10 dampers instead, and 2 tuning pins, braking two of them. Still not feeling satisfied, the broke the upstop rail in 4. And I guess since they had painted the bathroom, they decided to use the empty cavity as a urinal. To add insult to injury, they took my tuning lever. These kids wouldn't have created all this damage if I had only left the action in the piano. That is why I take full responsibility. It was all my fault. The only good that came from this, is that the school is getting a brand new D, and one of the piano faculty is getting the repaired concert grand. Wim </HTML>