Investigators are trying to identify a man who is believed to have swapped pricetags on instruments in an Edmonton music store, and spent hundreds of dollars on a violin worth thousands.

Long & McQuade assistant manager Tom Kerr said the incident happened earlier this month in the store on 92 Street and 28 Avenue.

“We had a fellow in our store on August 4 around 3:30, he came into our band room, switched some tags on a couple violins,” Kerr said. “He took the tag from a student-level violin, worth around $500, and put it on to a $7,500 violin.”

Kerr said he then took the expensive violin to the front desk and bought it for the lower price.

The expensive instrument is an Aubert Lutherie Alexandre Lefrancois violin serial #64. Kerr said he rang through the purchase, and admitted his personal knowledge of violins is limited.

“We should have looked a little harder, in this case we didn’t, and unfortunately it went for the price that was on the tag as opposed to the price of the instrument,” Kerr said.

“We were so anxious to get him the case that went with the violin, we wanted to give him everything that goes with it, and we didn’t take notice of the model he was actually purchasing.”

The entire incident, including the unidentified male switching the tags, was recorded on surveillance cameras in the store, and was reported to police.

EPS confirmed an investigation into the reported fraud was underway – at last word, no arrests had been made.