I met a very interesting fellow last night at a party (thanks Neil and happy 30th). Let’s call him Joel. Joel wanted to major in music performance. Like me he played the saxophone. But in his freshman year a professor indicated that for Joel, and many others, it would be very hard to eek out a living doing what they loved.

The professor asked leading questions like, "Do you like nice things." Well most of us do. So Joel changed his major to business and ended up working in the retail instrument business for a company he’d worked with since he was 17 years old.

Well one day while working as a salesman, he sold a piano to a seemingly nice couple with two kids. This couple had been in the store three times and had even brought their two kids in to try a beautiful, new grand piano. They finally put the piano on their credit card and showed proper ID. The credit card cleared.

They indicated they were moving into a new house and they wanted the piano in there before their furniture came. It sounded legit. When Joel and the crew showed up to set up the piano, the couple was there with the two kids running around. There was a U-haul in the drive way, but it was closed so that the crew couldn’t see inside of it. The couple walked Joel through the upscale house and showed him around the place.

So Joel and crew set up the piano in the living room and the couple played it a bit. They weren’t very good players and said they were musicians long ago who hadn’t played much as of late. Sometime later the store got a credit card rejection because the credit card used to buy that piano was fraudulent. This couple had stolen a grand piano. Apparently getting a stolen number and creating a new card is not that difficult. As far as Joel knows, the couple was never apprehended for that theft.

Joel said he was really struck hard by this loss. It took it quite personally as any of would. He has been in the business for a while now and it has happened twice to him. Apparently it is a rather too common occurrence in the industry. I wonder if that is why it took over two weeks for Suzy and me to get our grand piano delivered?