Robert Kuhn, Springfield, Mass. Man, Arrested In Restaurant Exhaust Pipe While Pantless, Greasy

Greasy Burglar Gets Stuck Pantless In Restaurant Exhaust Pipe

On the night of April 4, when 26-year-old Robert Kuhn greased himself up and climbed into a exhaust pipe at his former employer, the now-closed Lido restaurant in Springfield, Mass., he probably meant to execute the perfect crime. It was to be a burglary that involved entering but no breaking. Instead, he became exhibit A in the case against Santa Claus delivering presents to restaurants.

That's because Kuhn didn't get far down the 2' x 2' air shaft before he got stuck. The Boston Herald reports that Lido's owner, and Kuhn's old boss, Don Cerasa called the local police to report a pair of legs dangling out of his chimney.

When officers arrived, at about 9:55 pm, Kuhn allegedly told them, "I'm stuck." A fireman is said to have laughed uncontrollably before helping Kuhn escape.

After Kuhn was freed from the pipe, he was put into the more spacious, but no less absolute, confinement of the back of a cop car. He was charged with breaking and entering after all.

Everyone agrees that Kuhn wasn't wearing any pants when the police found him or when entered the cop car. It's not clear, however, when or how he got that way. The Herald implies that Kuhn had removed his pants before entering the shaft, assumedly in a futile effort to reduce friction. But CBS Local News insists that Kuhn had become stuck because he hadn't removed his pants before entering the shaft. According to the CBS story, the pants became entangled in some manner, which halted Kuhn's intrepid entry into Lido's.

If you want to try to reconstruct the scene for yourself, here's an ABC News report on the incident:

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