San Francisco police public affairs officer Sgt. Neville Gittens attempts to read the name of the violin inside the case of the instrument during a news conference at the Hall of Justice on Friday, Dec. 30, 2005. SF police have determined that the original report of theft, made by Sabina Rhee-Nakajima, was a false police report and that the violin was never stolen. Chronicle photo by Kat Wade
I've always considered tow companies to be among the most evil inventions of our time... ;-)
ping
And what's amazing is that the bows may be as valuable as the violin. If you want to be friends with a violinist, after letting him/her talk about the instrument, ask about the bow.
The violin was on loan to Rhee-Nakajima from a music dealer who was attempting to sell it on behalf of its owner.Ok. Scale of 0 - 10.
0 = dumber than a bag of hammers
10 = Albert Einstein
So where is the music dealer on this scale?
I guess this means Nakajima won't be borrowing a violin anytime soon.
So it was stolen before it wasn't stolen?
follow up ping
Thanks for the update. The story sounded suspicious from the get go.
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.
FReepers were saying this story "smelled" from the start. Congratulations to those who nailed it! Woo-hoo..sw
Oh, what tangled webs we weave....
Were any songs missing?
A bunch of the posters on the original thread smelled fraud. Looks like they were right.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A music student who told police a $175,000 violin was stolen from her car has recanted her story and the rare instrument has been recovered, police said on Friday.
A music shop had loaned a violin made by 18th-century Italian craftsman Nicolo Gagliano to Sabina Nakajima, 24, while she said she was considering whether to buy it. Nakajima told police it disappeared from the trunk of her car, which was towed away after she illegally parked it.
After looking crestfallen in local television interviews on Thursday, Nakajima recanted the story, a police official who did not want to be named said, and the instrument was recovered on Friday in good condition on the steps of a Catholic church 15 miles south of San Francisco.
"San Francisco police have determined that the original report of theft ... was false and the violin was never stolen," police said in a press release. "Investigators will complete their investigation and refer the case to the San Francisco District Attorney's office."
Nash Mondragon, owner of the Cremona violin shop that lent Nakajima the instrument on behalf of the seller, said he did not want to deal with the item any more.
"That's terrible," he said of the false theft report. "The violin is being returned to the owner. I don't want to handle the violin anymore."
Asked what collateral he had taken before lending out the instrument, he replied: "You have to trust them. That's the way the business has always worked."
Nakajima did not return calls for comment.
Turns up OK? Does that mean it was still in tune? Or still in mean-tone tune? Or just unscratched?