Man tries to steal flute by sticking it down his pants

JANESVILLE, Wisconsin -- A shoplifter was caught trying to steal a flute by stuffing it down his pants.

Surveillance video at Voigt Music Center caught the cheeky thief in the act. In the video, you can see the man has a flute down his pants and running up his back.

The instrument was fully visible from underneath the thief's pants and jacket.

One employee confronted the would-be thief before he could walk out the door. She asked him what he had in his pants. The thief said it was a flute and that's where he keeps his flutes.

"So she pulled it out of his pants and she said 'You keep our flute with our tag on it in the back of your pants,'" one employee recalled.

The thief made small talk and calmly walked out the front door. He got away empty-handed, but that left them with the problem of what to do with the flute.

"I couldn't in good conscience let anyone ever put their lips to that instrument," said Tony Farrell, the owner of the store.

Farrell got the bright idea to turn the flute into a lamp.