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Hello everyone,

You may recall a year and a half ago, I posted about my euphonium, which was stolen from my car in Akron, Ohio.

The instrument, a Professional Hirsbrunner Euphonium, was purchased by the owner of Central Instrument Company (Jim Stahl), of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio ---- for $100.00 (that's not a typo...). When I found out about this, we matched the serial number and confirmed the match.

Well, long story short, the instrument now belongs to the insurance company who helped me replace it. The insurance company is taking bids from any interested party on the instrument. The only other current bid comes from Jim Stahl for $700.00 (again, no typo).

At anyrate, it's very possible to get a good instrument for an INCREDIBLE price.

If you are interested, please contact Scott Bruce at Westfield Insurance: 330-873-3040. You'll probably have to go through a directory in order to get to Scott. Please don't wait on this, as I'm not sure of the timeline yet. If you would like to contact me, my e-mail is TWScott283@hotmail.com" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank


Sincerely,


Travis

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The store is refusing to release any information on who sold them the horn, and the police...have bigger things to worry about.

Don't ask me how I feel about this.

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Jim Stahl told me that he would not pursue the people who brought him the instrument (I guess they were a third party). He said the people who sold him the instrument brought in a whole box of random instruments. When I asked him who those people were, he refused saying they were "loyal customers".

He said the only people he would release that info to was the Police...who are not moving on this.

Uhmm, "loyal customers" with "a box of" instruments?

The whole thing seems like some sort of racket and the insurance company end up sticking it to the paying customers in the form of higher rates. There have to be some people who end up making money on this obvious scam.

I have to wonder why the police are simply ignoring the whole thing. It looks like a very minimum amount of investigation would uncover several guilty parties.

It'd be neat to own an HB euph, but I'd rather stay out of it, even if the sale would be "legit" at this point.

It's sometimes typical that after the 'smoke' clears and the instrument is sold... the insurance company finds someone to go after for the difference in dollars. Insurance investigators have more at stake than the law enforcement folks.

As a non-American I highly wonder how a person acting in a chain of fences/thieves at all is allowed to take part in the insurance auction.

Klaus

Mister JP wrote: It'd be neat to own an HB euph, but I'd rather stay out of it, even if the sale would be "legit" at this point.

To anyone who is questioning the legitimacy of this:

-My horn was stolen (Hirsbrunner) early morning, January 2nd, 2008.
-I filed a police report (that night)
-I filed an insurance claim (the next day)
-My insurance company covered my new horn (Besson 2051) the instrument with the Insurance Rider we had.
At this point in time, I signed away my ownership of the Hirsbrunner.
-When they covered me, I have three options in the event my horn comes up:
-1-I give them my new horn, take the old horn
-2- give them the old horn, keep the new horn
-3- buy the old instrument at its appraised value
-This all was in a legal document I signed.

I understand you need to keep yourself safe, but everything is perfectly legal. I put my reputation (no comment) on the line. Like I said in the original post, contact me if you have any questions.

Bidding is currently in process. Good luck!

I said that because through NO fault of your own, Travis, the HB euph is now mixed up in something fishy. It has been stolen from you, fenced for a ridiculously low price, recovered by the insurance company, you have been compensated for it's theft, and now this Jim Stahl is attempting to buy it for a second time for pennies on the dollar. Stahl obviously knows the real worth of the HB and will be looking to sell it for a big profit.

At some point the HB WILL be sold for a fair market price, which is way more than $700. Since the insurance company is the one who is currently out the $$$, it should be them who get it back.

The way you describe it, Jim Stahl and/or his "loyal customers" should be looked into. Why the police aren't moving on this is beyond me. Something is being covered up, but certainly not by you.

BTW, thanks for sharing the story, I hope it all ends well with a good euphonium player getting a great instrument to play.

It appears to me that the fishiest of the fishy is the instrument dealer who buys boxes of random horns without worrying about where they came from. The insurance company is bound to recover all it can from the final disposition so that it's other clients( folks like you and me) don't have to ante up any more than necessary in higher premiums to help cover the loss. The usual proceedure and probably the only legitimate one in this world is an auction. They cannot stipulate who is allowed to bid. So this clown of a dealer can benefit from the whole sorry mess. The only way to stop it from happening over and over is for the police to intervene. The dealer is certainly not going to risk his health by divulging the names of his fellow crooks without the fear of the justice system coming down on him. Each of these instruments is covered by a differnt company if at all therefore it is not worth going after the theives with an investigator to any single company.

It seems I was mistaken on the price that the music store payed for the box of instruments, including my stolen professional Hirsbrunner Exclusive euphonium.

I reported $100.00. A friend of mine was told $400.00 for box of instruments - including my Hirbrunner Euphonium.

Not a significant difference, but my mistake.