Mystery gift strikes a chord with North Park visitors

A concert-style Baldwin spinet appeared one day last week in a shelter along a path near Pie Traynor Field in North Park.

Park users began tweeting about it, posting photos of their dogs on the piano, videos of someone playing it — and it sounded reasonably in tune, according to one witness.

The media was alerted, then an inquiry from KDKA to Allegheny County set off a chain of reactions, which resulted in the piano’s removal Thursday morning.

A “Save the Piano” campaign sprang up from Star 100.7 FM. Comments from Friends of North Park call for a return of the piano, although no one volunteered to keep it in tune.

One person on Twitter, whose moniker is “simple,” wrote, “i would SO hold an umbrella over the piano to keep it dry...ummm...forever.”

Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for county Executive Rich Fitzgerald, said the piano is in storage at North Park “to protect it from the elements — and animals, vandalism, etc. We’re not going to do anything with it for 30 days to allow an opportunity for the rightful owner of it to claim it if they wish to do so.”

She said the Brad Wittmer at Brighton Music offered to help.

“Brad and his folks are going to take a look at the piano to see what kind of shape it is in so that we know what we’re dealing with if no one claims it.”