removeChild error

programming flash
1

I’ve been having trouble with removeChild lately. Below is a little project I made just to try stuff out.

btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, makepitcher);
btn2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, removepitcher);
var mcClip:pitcher = new pitcher();

function makepitcher(event:MouseEvent):void{
addChild(mcClip);
mcClip.x=200;
mcClip.y=200;
}

function removepitcher(event:MouseEvent):void{
if(mcClip){
this.removeChild(mcClip);
}
}

I get the following error if I try to remove the pitcher without creating it first or if I created it and removed it already – ArgumentError: Error #2025: The supplied DisplayObject must be a child of the caller.
at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer/removeChild()
at Untitled_fla::MainTimeline/removepitcher()