Antique Violin Stolen From Train Luggage Rack

[Traveller54]

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-10-30/250k-antique-violin-left-on-train-was-stolen-from-luggage-rack/

Stephen Morris left his antique violin, which was made by craftsman David Tecchler in 1709, on the London Victoria to Orpington train when he got off at Penge East on Tuesday October 22.

The musician had appealed for its safe return, saying it was "devastating to lose the instrument I’ve been playing for 20 years".

On Wednesday, British Transport Police said another man had taken the violin as the train approached Bromley South, and got on a connecting train to St Mary Cray.

I feel for the owner and I hope he gets his instrument returned safely but who would take the risk of putting something so valuable on a luggage rack?

It looks like he left it on the train accidentally. I don’t possess anything anywhere near as valuable but if I did I would be very wary about taking it on a train and if I had to, would keep it very close to my person to ensure I didn’t forget it when alighting.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-10-30/250k-antique-violin-left-on-train-was-stolen-from-luggage-rack/

I feel for the owner and I hope he gets his instrument returned safely but who would take the risk of putting something so valuable on a luggage rack? It looks like he left it on the train accidentally. I don’t possess anything anywhere near as valuable but if I did I would be very wary about taking it on a train and if I had to, would keep it very close to my person to ensure I didn’t forget it when alighting.

As you say - very sad. I would not take the risk. No way Hosea

Off topic - I would not let TSA near one either - and carry on board the aircraft

 

[Far north 37]

Wonder if it would have been better not letting the real value of the violin become public knowledge.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

We had a young lad many years ago - travelling to a music exam on the North London Line from Hampstead Heath towards Richmond - who had a 19thC family heirloom violin , which in a moment of utter forgetfulness he left on the rack of the 313. Cue urgent calls in all directions.

This was the middle of the day -and whilst it was more sentimental value than worth £xxx , it meant a lot to them.

My faith in humanity was restored as it was handed into one of the few station staff we had in those bleak days of early private operation , returned in a driving cab and exam taken. Might have been different going eastbound.

Was this more recent one on a late evening train ...?

 

[hexagon789]

We had a young lad many years ago - travelling to a music exam on the North London Line from Hampstead Heath towards Richmond - who had a 19thC family heirloom violin , which in a moment of utter forgetfulness he left on the rack of the 313. Cue urgent calls in all directions.

This was the middle of the day -and whilst it was more sentimental value than worth £xxx , it meant a lot to them.

My faith in humanity was restored as it was handed into one of the few station staff we had in those bleak days of early private operation , returned in a driving cab and exam taken. Might have been different going eastbound.

Was this more recent one on a late evening train ...?

1709 Victoria-Orpington according to the link

 

[3rd rail land]

I play the violin and fortunately I have never left mine behind on any form of public transport before. That said my instrument isn't worth £250k but isn't some cheap mass produced instrument either.

Hopefully the violin is found and returned. Sourcing a replacement would be very time consuming as you have to visit lots of dealers and try out many many instruments then you trial your favourites. You can't can't go and buy a like for like replacement like you can a piece of technology or a car as violins, aside from mass produced cheaper instruments, are one offs and no replacement could possibly be exactly the same.

Reminds me of the story of the Huberman Stradivarius violin which was stolen from a dressing room at a concert hall and took 50 years to be recovered and that was only because the person who stole it, a professional violinist, admitted doing so on his death bed. Today that violin is worth many million of pounds.

 

[Busaholic]

Surprised no-one's mentioned the Stradivarius violin stolen from the floor of a Pret a Manger (?) at Euston a few years ago, but eventually recovered. It was worth a million or so.

 

[Lucan]

I'm surprised he even let a thing like that out of his hands. I have a camera bag with "only" about £4k worth of contents and i keep the strap looped through my arm when on a train or in a restaurant. A violin case might be more awkward, but Victoria - Orpington is not far to put up with it. My method is not resistant to a physical attack, but ensures against a stealth theft or leaving it behind.

 

[ComUtoR]

1709 Victoria-Orpington according to the link

Stephen Morris left his antique violin, which was made by craftsman David Tecchler in 1709, on the London Victoria to Orpington train when he got off at Penge East on Tuesday October 22.

From the article. The Violin was made in 1709.

On 22nd October, the victim was travelling on the 10.58pm service from London Victoria

From the BTP link. 10.58pm (22:58) service.

 

[pdeaves]

Surprised no-one's mentioned the Stradivarius violin stolen from the floor of a Pret a Manger (?) at Euston a few years ago, but eventually recovered. It was worth a million or so.

Such thefts seem to be more common than one would expect. I would have thought that unless you knew the value you wouldn't give an instrument a second glance. Did the owners (accidentally?) mention its value loud enough for ne'er-do-wells to hear?

 

[Terry Tait]

The person who stole it will quickly realise that it is going to be extremely difficult to sell, he probably at the time had no idea what it's true value was but he does now.

 

[Lucan]

I would have thought that unless you knew the value you wouldn't give an instrument a second glance. Did the owners (accidentally?) mention its value loud enough for ne'er-do-wells to hear?

I highly doubt that first sentence is true. Someone with a whim to take up violin playing might take anything in a violin case. Anyway, thieves take first and assess the loot later.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Leaving something so valuable in a luggage rack is pretty foolish tbh. Whoever took it is still a thief (assuming that they intended to permanently deprive the owner of it) but I've less sympathy for the owner than if it had been taken from them while they were still there.

If I leave my front door wide open and someone walks in and steals my TV, they've still broken the law but my insurers would probably not pay out.

 

[sprunt]

I feel for the owner and I hope he gets his instrument returned safely but who would take the risk of putting something so valuable on a luggage rack?

Agreed, and not just for fear of theft. It would be fairly easy for someone not to notice something of that size, and damage it when putting a suitcase up there.

 

[Busaholic]

Such thefts seem to be more common than one would expect. I would have thought that unless you knew the value you wouldn't give an instrument a second glance. Did the owners (accidentally?) mention its value loud enough for ne'er-do-wells to hear?

As it was reported at the time, it was one of the usual low life who've hung round the station and its environs for decades. It probably caused them an enormous amount of bother (I hope so anyway) which led to its eventual recovery unscathed.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Reminds me of the story of the Huberman Stradivarius violin which was stolen from a dressing room at a concert hall and took 50 years to be recovered and that was only because the person who stole it, a professional violinist, admitted doing so on his death bed. Today that violin is worth many million of pounds.

A story like that probably adds a zero (or half of one) to the value tbh!

 

[najaB]

Story has a happy ending...

Musician Stephen Morris reunited with £250,000 Tecchler violin

A 310-year-old violin worth £250,000 that was left on a train in south London has been returned to its owner.

The instrument was handed over to professional musician Stephen Morris in a supermarket car park in Beckenham after secret negotiations.

Plain-clothes police officers attended in case the handover went wrong, as the man who had the violin said he had made a mistake and apologised.

Mr Morris said having the violin back had not yet "sunk in".

"I feel a bit battered and bruised," he said. "I haven't had a great deal of sleep since it went missing," adding that he would have a beer to celebrate.

 

[eMeS]

Let's hope it's still playable.
Perhaps the musician can explain to those of us merely worrying about a camera, (or other common valuable) why he chose to leave it where he did.

 

[najaB]

Let's hope it's still playable.

In the article it says that it was even still in tune.

Perhaps the musician can explain to those of us merely worrying about a camera, (or other common valuable) why he chose to leave it where he did.

Everyone has moments of forgetfulness.

 

[yorkie]

Glad to hear it ended well!

Everyone has moments of forgetfulness.

Very true.

 

[Busaholic]

In the article it says that it was even still in tune.
Everyone has moments of forgetfulness.

An acquaintance of mine en route to a holiday cottage in Scotland stopped outside a shop thirty miles from his destination, took his dog for a short walk, left it tied outside the shop then drove to his destination. A sixty mile return journey later, but the dog was still there!

 

[edwin_m]

David Cameron managed to leave one of his children behind. Something to do with travelling in two cars I think, each assumed the other one had the infant in question.

Then again many years ago I managed to leave my parents in my dad's car by driving off in the other car and taking the key with me. He hitched a lift and caught up about 20 miles later.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

A good friend , with a wife of excellent Scottish heritage drove from Welwyn to he Scottish Highlands for a family reunion - he locked his incredibly expensive bike to the luggage rack and arrived safely. He planned an epic cycling tour around the area , whilst is wife enjoyed the familial catch-up.

He left the keys to the bike on the kitchen table.

It cost a fair bit of money and planning to get the keys sent up to Scotland. It was done. He is the most careful of individuals in life. I enjoy reminding him of it.

 

[eMeS]

In the article it says that it was even still in tune.
Everyone has moments of forgetfulness.

The musician was on TV earlier today, and it seems that he'd been working (overly?) hard, and simply got off the train leaving the violin case in the rack. He praised BTP for their assistance, and then played a little on the violin. I still don't understand how anyone lets go of such a package - anywhere, other than at home.

 

[eMeS]

Subsidiary question from the above:

We live in an age of technology, and control of many things, so why hasn't someone set up controlled growing conditions so that the timber from which the best violins were made, can be replicated? (If my memory is correct, the best sounding violins are made from timber grown during a particularly cold period (ice fairs on the Thames etc.) leading to closer grain than normal.)

 

[najaB]

I still don't understand how anyone lets go of such a package - anywhere, other than at home.

It's a condition called being human.

 

[najaB]

We live in an age of technology, and control of many things, so why hasn't someone set up controlled growing conditions so that the timber from which the best violins were made, can be replicated?

It's not just the timber. It's largely the skill of the violin maker and, unsurprisingly, people who own such rare instruments aren't likely to be queuing up to let them be used for destructive reverse engineering.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The musician was on TV earlier today, and it seems that he'd been working (overly?) hard, and simply got off the train leaving the violin case in the rack. He praised BTP for their assistance, and then played a little on the violin. I still don't understand how anyone lets go of such a package - anywhere, other than at home.

The cynic in me is now wondering if the whole thing was a set-up... a less extreme version of the Karen Matthews thing!

NOTE: I don't actually believe it was a set-up, but stranger things have happened.

 

[Busaholic]

The cynic in me is now wondering if the whole thing was a set-up... a less extreme version of the Karen Matthews thing!

NOTE: I don't actually believe it was a set-up, but stranger things have happened.

I may be a cynic, but I believe this one 100% - truth is stranger than fiction.

 

[Calthrop]

Everyone has moments of forgetfulness.

Amen ! (As witness the various tales in this thread, of people forgetting about highly-important things -- or people -- in their charge, prompted by this comment.)

I'm tempted to think that perhaps highly bright / talented people have more of a tendency to this sort of vagueness, than do us "average Joes". Am reminded of an experience long ago, of myself and a fellow-railway-enthusiast -- an academically brilliant guy with a stratospherically high IQ, but the quintessential "absent-minded professor". This gentleman and I had plans for a joint rail "bash" of a country at the other end of Europe, which interested us. Our respective circumstances meant that we had arranged to meet up actually out there, in the capital city. Subsequent experience made it clear to me, that one did not make rendezvous-ing arrangements with this chap -- there was a more than 90% likelihood of his messing them up, and the meeting not happening; but at the time of this venture, I had yet to discover that. In case of our first rendezvous failing; we had back-up plans A and B, for different venues in the country, x and y hours later -- all very John le Carre, and, we thought, foolproof; but re that word, "the boundless ingenuity of fools..."

On my friend's outward journey by rail, he left his compartment for a meal in the dining car, leaving his luggage on the compartment overhead rack. During his absence, some less-than-honest citizen rifled his luggage; taking various things from it, including the piece of paper on which he had written, in full, our rendezvous-ing arrangements. His memories of same were vague and incomplete: things so worked out, that I turned up for all our three alternative rendezvous -- he was at none of them; he tried to take measures to contact me, which fell through -- ultimately, after a couple of days he gave up and went home; I did the bash (with some modifications because of the messing-around) solo. I had to wonder why in heaven's name, my friend had not had the nous to keep the written-down details of our meeting-up plans, on his person; but that (can be) people for you...