Cemetery Worker Is Charged with Stealing a Guitar — a Telecaster — from Dead Man's Casket

Here's the latest from the "people who steal expensive guitars from caskets" department:

A grounds superintendent at a Wisconsin cemetery has been accused of stealing a $2,000 Fender Telecaster from the casket of a man who had recently died.

FoxNews.com reports that Steve Conard, 39, was charged yesterday, September 26, with the theft of "moveable property from a corpse."

The family of the deceased confirmed that the guitar was in the casket last week, when it was being moved from the funeral home to a mausoleum in the Green Bay area.

A cemetery employee overheard Conard talking about the guitar: "That's a Tele, a really expensive guitar. I have to have that guitar. It's too expensive to be in a crypt." When that same employee looked in the casket the next day (Friday), the guitar was missing.

Deputies found the Tele in Conard's home, the department said. "This isn't something I normally do; I just have a respect for fine musical instruments," Conard said, according to the sheriff's department.

The Tele was returned to the family and the man and his guitar were entombed.

For more info, read on right here!

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Damian Fanelli
Editor-in-Chief, Guitar World

Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.