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"MBTA Police Catch Package Thief, Find Rightful Owner Of $1,700 Piano": https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/11...ransit-police-catch-package-thief-piano/

Yes, a nice story indeed, with a happy ending, despite the thief's criminal intentions.

Unfortunately, this type of thing seems to be happening more and more these days.

Glad this particular scenario had a happy ending.

Rick

These thefts rarely happen with acoustic pianos.

Ha,ha,ha! True, BDB. I am happy this one had a happy ending.

By the way, I cannot remember the details, but I have the memory of a university having people looking like official piano movers come into a concert space and remove the expensive piano that was there. Nobody questioned them because they looked official. Anyone remember the details of that?

Again, happy this story ended well.

No, but what a nightmare!!!

Re the original story,
When we first moved back to the US, I bought a Yamaha digital piano from Guitar Center and had it shipped to me. I remember it was scheduled to be delivered when I wouldn't be home, but I also was thinking "it will be fine, no one will be able to pick it up and run off with it."

In the end, it was fine, but I guess I shouldn't have been so optimistic!

If it had been an accordion the thieves would have brought it back and probably left an extra that they didn't want. (I used to play accordion so I'm authorized to make fun of it)

The nice thing is the piano fits in a shopping cart.
The bad thing is ... the piano fits in a shopping cart.

Yes odd, how on earth did it fit into a shopping cart? Perhaps it was huge shopping cart at the airport.I guess the piano was a spinet or a digital? Even a spinet is quite heavy and wide although even some digitals in cabinets can also be so.It probably was a keyboard with a stand?

The meaning of the word 'piano' has undergone considerable expansion. I recall going into Chappell's
in London (round about 1974) and enquiring about pianos. I was asked what sort of thing I had in mind and when I explained was told, fairly snootily, that what I was looking for was 'an upright'; the word piano was reserved for grands. Nowadays, a piano seems to be anything from a thing with four octaves that goes 'plink' to a 9 foot grand.

I imagine that the piano in this case, delivered in a cardboard box and left on someone's door-step, was rather closer to the former than to the latter.

This serves as a warning. If you’re ordering expensive electronics for delivery, request signature required, or hold for pickup. There is a rapid increase of smash and grab and stealing doorstep delivery packages. These stolen products are then sold on one of the many “sell it quick” websites.

The very first piano I bought (as an adult beginner) was a piano that comes in a cardboard box and can be delivered to the doorstep.... Later I bought an upright, but then we moved internationally and lived in an apartment again, and I found myself again needing to purchase another piano-in-a-cardboard-box.

I played that second cardboard-box-piano for 7 years before I was in a situation where I could again have an acoustic (first an upright, and now a grand).

Those cardboard-box-pianos got me playing and kept me at the keyboard, and were it not for their accessibility (in terms of price, portability and options for playing w/ headphones), I would probably not have been able to start playing piano, and then after our international move, I wouldn't have been able to continue playing.

Certainly some cardboard-box-pianos are nicer than others, but all can be a gateway to musical experience and enjoyment.

And as such, as far as I'm concerned, a cardboard-box-piano is, in the end, a piano.