Czech President Vaclav Klaus was videotaped "stealing" a ceremonial pen during a state visit to Chile. The clip has since gone viral on Youtube.
The video shows Klaus picking up and looking at the pen as Chilean President Sebastian Pinera makes a welcoming address for the Czech leader. Klaus then takes the pen under the table, where he appears to put it in his pocket, before closing the case on the table and grinning, BBC reports. A spokesman for Klaus said to the BBC it was "a common pen with a logo of the state or office, which presidents and members of their delegation receive during state visits." That doesn't seem to be saving the Czech president from an onslaught of public ridicule and teasing. Czech television broadcast the video, and then a copy showed up on YouTube with the headline "President of Czech Republic steals pen," red circles and arrows and a crime scene soundtrack. The video has over 100,000 views and counting. More than 5,000 Czechs have signed up to a Facebook campaign to mail pens to the president by May 2, because "Mr. president obviously has nothing to write with." Some citizens are downright appalled at Klaus' pen-snatching. "It seemed to me absolutely inappropriate to do anything like that during an official ceremony," said Vojtech Palous, a 23-year-old student of medicine from Prague, to the Associated Press. "To do that in front of television cameras was just insane." "All I have to say, it is not a pen but just a stylus," Klaus said Tuesday, adding that he takes things all the time. Klaus said he has a pen from October's NATO Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, and a notepad from the Latvian Parliament, among other souvenirs, reports ABC News. "It is what people do regularly. They keep notepads and pen from such events."
