Valuable violin turns up OK, but many questions remain (Update)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12-31-2005 | Steve Rubenstein

[ErnBatavia]

I've always considered tow companies to be among the most evil inventions of our time... ;-)

For an adult-rated hoot, Googleize: Wanda Sykes Towyard

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Have you tried the Thomastik-Infeld Power Brights? .010 through .045. Amazing strings Expensive, but amazing! I've got them on my 57 Strat, and through a Dr. Z the sound is wonderful.

[Kenny Bunk]

Cagey, the only reason the tricky little violinist dared try this scam on is simple:

Tow Companies are crooks. Hire Crooks.
are owned by crooks and worse, and work with crook cops.
Favorite target: Laptops. And anything else
not actually welded to the vehicle.

Dollars to donuts, although they didn't steal the shifty little weasel's violin, they nabbed something else from her vehicle.

Crook-to-crook-transaction. Arrest everybody.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The story sounded suspicious from the get go.

Too bad they found it, 'cause Jim Rockford could have used the $200-a-day-plus-expense. What did it take to get it back, a Franklin to Angel?

[Kenny Bunk]

Tow Company Stolen Ping

BTW, I am proud to be on a site where a stolen property report turns into a learned discussion of classical violins and music.

[spectre]

Thank you so much for the update.

FReepers were saying this story "smelled" from the start. Congratulations to those who nailed it! Woo-hoo..sw

[Argh]

Sheesh!!

[mtbopfuyn]

Yoo hoo! Waving hand here to anyone wanting to loan one of those flutes.

[Kenny Bunk]

Tow Company Stolen Ping

BTW, I am proud to be on a site where a stolen property report turns into a learned discussion of classical violins and music.


Happy New Year!

[ol' hoghead]

Rhee-Nakajima then changed her story, Gittens said, and admitted that the violin had never been stolen and that she had filed a false police report.

Oh, what tangled webs we weave....

[Kenny Bunk]

Happy New Year to all!

A message from your friendly city-authorized tow operator.

[Ramius]

Interesting thread...

On this level of bow and violin... what are the strings made out of?

[Cagey]

what are the strings made out of?.

Good question. I've heard they were made from horse hair, but I'll wait and see what the experts say.

[AndrewB]

The bow is strung with horsehair from the tail. More exactly, Mongolian horsehair. More exactly, Mongolian Stallion hair. Cheaper bows may be strung with mare tail hair which as we know, may be upon occasion degraded by urine. (Stallion urine flows away from the tail.)

[mtbopfuyn]

Wow, very good with not dumbing down Handel's Messiah. Just this year our school has decided to divide the band into the better and no so good players. I was hoping it would show in the Christmas concert, but sadly, no. No wonder my All Region (!) flutist is bored.

She started out on my old college flute but a friend let us have their daughter's very nice one for a song (they'd just bought it for her senior year but she promptly dropped out of band two weeks later - $2800). Even without all the bells and whistles on the new one, I'm partial to my old flute's sound but that's just me. Ah, but it does a parent proud when their teen asks them to join in while they play. :)

[mtbopfuyn]

$50 for the violin. $750 for the Max Wunderlich bow. And that was almost 20 years ago!

I've been putting of doing anything with two of granny's violins. Maybe I should have them looked at. Haven't the slighted idea the names, though.

[Cagey]

Interesting.


What a great Jeopardy answer that would make.

[libstripper]

It surprises me that she even tried to steal the violin. With a price tag of $175,000 it is a very unique instrument and one that only a few people would want and be able to pay for. Thus, it would be about as hard to dispose of as an original Rembrant. A smarter thief goes for cheaper, more fungible items that aren't as easy to trace and identify and are far easier to fence.

[nuconvert]

Lol. Where else but on FR?

[nuconvert]

And where else would you get information on that same thread of the sort in #54? lol

Happy New Year!