Posted on 02/23/2013 6:59:50 AM PST by JoeProBono
NEW YORK,- A New York musician who sublet his $4,000-a-month apartment to a man he never met said his $140,000 concert grand piano was stolen.
Dong-Hyek Lim, 28, said he sublet his Trump Place apartment in December to a man calling himself Byungyung Kim on the website HeyKorean.com, a Craigslist-type site catering specifically to Korean Americans, and he returned recently to discover his piano and other items had been stolen, the New York Daily News reported Friday.
Lim said the man apparently used a bogus name and an email address and phone number that can't be traced. He said Kim also further sublet the apartment while Lim was away.
"We don't know who took what," said Daniel Churgin, Lim's lawyer.
"Pianos don't have insurance," Lim said. "Violins do. Violins can be stolen easily. A piano is not something you can put in your pocket."
The piano was tracked to Amadeus, a Long Island piano company that refused to hand the instrument over because it has been sold to a San Francisco man.
Lim said he is trying to get a court to block the piano from being shipped.
Didn’t the Arizona Diamondbacks used to have a relief pitcher by the name of Byungyung Kim?
Who would sublet an apartment, if you have a $140 grand piano inside?
It takes a special level of stupidity to do that.
Long Island piano company is trafficking in stolen goods. Is not that called “fencing” and a crime?
He trusted his “own” and got burned, big time. Oh well, welcome to Amerika. Not too bright I’m afraid, but then again, who’d expect someone to steal a grand piano for Christ sake? You’d think the building management would have gotten suspicious with some tenant arranging for a huge piano to be shipped out of the building? Maybe confusion given the schlub had the same last name as the unit owner?
I find it hard to believe that the Trump organization would let one tenant sublet one of their apartments without submitting various legal papers ,including verifiable ID, from the new tenet.
“I find it hard to believe....”
It’s generally considered and legally established that it is within the a right of a lessee to sublet. It’s in with that bundle of rights a lessee has. IANAL and I sure don’t know NY law, but I’d suspect subletting cannot be denied.
Dumbass thief probably heard this was a big blackmarket for organs in the asian ccommunity.
Indeed. This is the asian version of a community organ-izer. All up and coming agitating Asian activists begin by redistributing pianos to the less fortunate. It’s only fair.
Four thousand for a furnished apartment there? Must be 400 sq ft on a low floor overlooking the dumpster.
Never ever leave anything you value in a rental. It will be damaged or stolen.
Occupiano.... Gone-nam Style.
A 140-grand piano, to be exact.
It is quite possible to be a genius piano player and yet be totally lacking business or common sense.
I believe you can sublet but I’d assume the owner of the building has the right, and would want to know, who is in the building and would have some say in the matter.
LOTS of questions here, including how they got it out of the building, but why no insurance on a $140K piano? If not against theft, against fire?
The generally accepted spelling is Byung-Hyun Kim. I suppose that the translation could be spelled in different ways. He did well in 2000 and had an awesome regular season in 2001, but almost blew the 2001 World Series for them. Then he had a great year in 2002. In 2003 they made him a starter, but he was traded to the Boston Red Sox and went back to being a closer. Before the start of the 2005 season, he was traded to Colorado. Nowadays he's pitching in South Korea.
The point is that this case would be like subletting your apartment to somebody who claimed that his name was Dennis Eckersley or Rollie Fingers.
Or some guy registering to vote who claimed that his name was Troy Aikman. (Hat tip to ACORN.)
When somebody uses the name of a thoroughly famous athlete like that, you know you’re being ripped off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.