And now we know how the piano got on the sandbar in Miami’s Biscayne Bay.

Surely you saw the reports of the piano that showed up on a sandbar. Here’s a report from a couple of days ago:

A couple of independent filmmakers took initial credit, but their story didn’t hold up. So, how DID it get out there?

Here’s how: A high school kid put it out there. According to the Miami Herald, the kid, whose father is a TV production designer, wanted to build up his portfolio for his college applications. The family had an old piano used as a prop in a movie, and Nicholas Harrington had an idea to shoot a promotional video for his college applications that would involve the piano on the sandbar, plus a small submarine and bagpipes. No, I can’t picture that, either. But at a New Year’s Eve party, the revelers set the piano on fire. Then Nicholas, his brother, his dad, and a neighbor took the piano out on a boat, dropped it on the sandbar, set it on fire again, and left it there.

And then someone living by Biscayne Bay saw a strange object out there and took pictures, National Geographic posted them, and the thing went viral. We know Harrington’s story is legitimate because there’s video of the piano being loaded onto the boat:

So the real story isn’t as exciting as everyone had hoped. Not that anyone had any clear idea what the story could possibly be, other than either a movie/video shoot or a prank, or maybe Babe Ruth’s piano. But a college application video? Disappointing. On to the next mystery….