Fwd: Break-In at NEMS Headquarters

[Donna Halper]

I don't know how many of you know Alan Lewis, or his tireless efforts 
to preserve the history of New England's music scene.  He just sent 
me and several other of his friends an e-mail about his home/office 
being broken into.  I've known him for years and his is a shoestring 
operation where he truly does try to do more with less.  If you are 
not familiar with his site, it's 
here:  http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/home.htm  Best way to reach 
him is via e-mail, since he can't even afford a phone right now.  His 
direct e-mail is  <FredRemainsLost@Yahoo.com>

And with Garrett's kind permission, here is a portion of the e-mail 
Alan sent.  If any BRI list-members can help him, I'd appreciate 
it.  This is an honest guy and he has helped numerous musicians over 
the years.  Perhaps some of us can help him, even if it is just to 
drop him an e-mail and let him know you've been through it (I 
certainly have, and it was no fun at all).

Alan wrote:

>My place has been broken into.
>
>The local police have speculated that the person who did the 
>stealing knew exactly what he or she wanted, went straight for it, 
>and made off in a hurry: probably when I was out jogging.  We have 
>had a security problem at my building, and I have been trying, 
>without success so far, to get the responsible party to fix it.
>
>It will probably get fixed, now that it is too late.
>
>My wallet was stolen, with cash and all other contents, and someone 
>used or at the very least tried to use my debit card. Today being 
>Sunday, I cannot learn any more about this until Monday. Access to 
>my bank account had already been blocked by the time I knew I needed 
>to report this loss. I've a feeling this will prove to be a "good 
>news and bad news" situation, as to my card having already been 
>deactivated. Good, at least, that access to the account was blocked. 
>Probably bad news in all other regards.
>
>Nothing of this nature has ever happened to me before, and I really 
>don't know the ropes. But it could not possibly have happened at a 
>worse time from a financial point of view, and I am going to need to 
>learn the ropes in a huge hurry.
>
>If anyone doesn't just believe, but definitely knows for a fact of 
>an operation that helps musicians in the case of an unanticipated 
>calamity and might also consider a music organization such as ours, 
>or if anyone even knows for sure of a charitable organization that 
>can help with life's rough spots which otherwise fall through the 
>cracks (a charity of the "Miscellaneous" category), please e-mail us 
>at <FredRemainsLost@Yahoo.com>
>
>What I mean by this is that there are organizations that provide 
>short-term help if one is dislocated from home by, say, a fire or a 
>flood, but this situation I am facing clearly does not fall into 
>that degree of severity. It is, nonetheless, a very real, immediate 
>problem that must be dealt with.
>
>It is a long and perfectly dull story, but I should also add that I 
>do not currently have telephone service. I do all my communicating 
>by way of the Internet, postal mail, and in person: mostly the Internet.
>
>We have posted news before of musical instruments being stolen, some 
>of which have even been recovered. But you can't imagine how much I 
>hate bringing this up, in my own case, having spent a lifetime, as 
>my father once said of my mother, trying to be as self-sufficient as 
>possible. But I have never faced a situation at all like this. 
>(Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, where I have lived, are not 
>exactly high-crime states - except for since Noon yesterday.) I am 
>really quite clueless, and it is not likely I will get an idea about 
>what further quick, short-term options there may be unless I ask. 
>The people at the police and the lost/stolen bank-card office could 
>tell me no more.  If you have really concrete ideas and e-mail 
>addresses to go along with them, please let me know.
>
>You have my apologies that this message runs on so. With any luck, 
>there will never be another occasion.