A grounds superintendent at a Wisconsin cemetery is accused of stealing a $2,000 guitar from the casket of a man who died recently. Steve Conard, 39, was charged Monday with theft of moveable property from a corpse.
The family of the dead man said a Fender Telecaster guitar was in the casket Thursday afternoon when it was being moved from the funeral home to the Allouez Catholic Cemetery's mausoleum in Green Bay, according to investigators.
A cemetery employee later overheard Conard talking about the guitar, the sheriff's department said. "That's a Telly, a really expensive guitar. I have to have that guitar. It's too expensive to be in a crypt," the employee quoted Conard as saying.
The employee looked in the casket Friday morning and the guitar was missing, investigators said.
During questioning over the weekend, Conard told investigators, "This isn't something I normally do; I just have a respect for fine musical instruments," according to sheriff's department.
Deputies found the guitar in his home, the department said.
The suspect's employer, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, said the man is on unpaid leave pending the result of the criminal investigation.
The guitar was returned to the family and the man and his guitar were entombed in a crypt in an interior mausoleum on Saturday, diocese deacon Ray DuBois said.
