Czech Prez Pilfers Pen, Becomes YouTube Hit

Guests of the Chilean president are free to take ceremonial pens, a spokesman says, although you wouldn't know it from Czech President Vaclav Klaus' behavior in a video that has become a YouTube sensation. As President Sebastian Pinera speaks, Klaus craftily removes the pen from its case, moves his hands under the table, slips the pen into his pocket and—looking decidedly pleased with himself—buttons up his jacket and closes the case.

The pen, encrusted with semi-precious lapiz lazuli stones, is "a common pen with a logo of the state or office, which presidents and members of their delegation receive during state visits" a Klaus spokesman tells the AP. Versions of the pen-pilfering video have been viewed more than a million times and a Facebook campaign has sprung up urging Czechs to send pens to Klaus' office "as the president obviously has nothing to write with," the Guardian reports. (More Vaclav Klaus stories.)