Stolen bagpipes returned – faith in humanity restored
STACY Grundy (Burness) has found her stolen bagpipes. She expressed her excitement about getting her bagpipes back and said the man who returned them had renewed her faith in humanity.
Grundy, whose bagpipes had been missing for almost two weeks after they were stolen from her parked car, said yesterday she was overjoyed about having her bagpipes home.
She said that on Thursday night she received a call that changed the course of her week.
“This gentleman sent me a message (on Thursday) night saying ‘I think I found your bagpipes.’ I said ‘really?’ and he said ‘yes’. He then sent me a picture of the bagpipes.
“He said two guys approached him and asked him to buy the bagpipes, because they needed to buy food for their kids. This happened somewhere in Morningside. So he did and he paid R300 for them.
“His friend showed him the article in the Independent on Saturday. He then called me,” Grundy said.
She said they arranged to meet at McDonald’s yesterday morning.
“I asked my friend Len Coetzee, who is a certified fraud examiner, to come with me because I didn’t want to go alone, and I really appreciate that. I am really grateful to him for helping me. We met at McDonald’s in the morning.
“The gentleman came in at 9.30am and when I saw my pipes I knew straight away that they were mine. This guy and I went on to write a statement,” she said.
“The gentleman who found my bagpipes restored my faith in humanity. He didn’t even ask for the reward, and wouldn’t take the R300 back. He said he was just glad that he could return them to me. I can’t believe it,” she said.
“I want to thank every single person in Durban who sent in messages of hope and sympathy. It was on social media and so many people commented and saw my devastation. I want to thank them as well,” said Grundy.
ON THE front page of last week’s edition we reported the theft of Stacy Grundy’s bagpipes, taken from her car while she dined at a restaurant.
This week we’re thrilled to tell you that the instrument, whose sound thrills and annoys in equal measure, depending on who’s listening, has been found and restored to its owner.
Its sound being described variously as emotional and visceral on the one hand, and like pigs being slowly strangled on the other, it is likely the thieves did not know what they were stealing, or how difficult it would be to turn over for a quick buck, when they took off with the bagpipes.
However, somebody eventually took it off them (for R300, apparently). When it was pointed out to the buyer that his “good deal” could actually be Grundy’s precious missing instrument, he got in touch and made arrangements to hand it over, not even claiming the R2000 reward she offered for its return.
A perfect end which, I’m happy to say, our article played a small part in being arrived at.
Now that the bagpipes are safely back in Grundy’s possession, one can only hope that her talents on the instrument tend to the “emotional and visceral” end of the spectrum, rather than the other side (wink, wink).