A stranger gave a boy with autism a $15,000 piano after hearing him play

Aurora, Colorado — Late last year, 11-year-old Jude Kofie received an incredible surprise. Whoever said the best things come in small packages has never been gifted a grand piano.  

The piano just showed up at Jude's house one day. 

"All for free," said his father, Isaiah. "Who does that?" 

To understand how we got here, we have to go back a year-and-a-half, when Isaiah heard a noise coming from the basement. There was an old keyboard down there, but no one knew how to play it, certainly not his autistic son — or so he thought.

Jude had never had a lesson. No one taught him how to play. But Isaiah got Jude a larger keyboard to see what more he could do. 

"It's a miracle," Jude said of his musical talents. 

"You think it's a miracle?" CBS News asked Jude. 

"That's what I prefer," Jude responded. 

Bill Magnusson prefers that, too.

Magnusson is a piano tuner. He saw a local news story about Jude and heard him play. He learned Jude's parents immigrated from Ghana and were raising four children, as well as sending money back home to their family in Ghana.

"What resources are left over to help this special little soul?" Magnusson said. 

Using his father's inheritance, Magnusson bought a $15,000 piano — estimated to be worth $45,000 — and promised to tune it once a month for the rest of his life. He's also paying for Jude to get professional lessons. 

"We're family now," Magnusson said. 

The Kofie family is thankful. 

"Somebody to just love your son like that by making sure that his future is secured, we are super thankful," Isaiah said. 

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Steve Hartman

Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.

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