When a man walking among the graves at the Mount Emblem Cemetery in this Chicago suburb suddenly jumped into his car and sped off one day in August, a worker jotted down his license plate number and called police.Worth knowing about if you have any relevant family gravesite decorations - though I don't suppose there's much you can do to prevent the theft. More at the link.
A few days later, police say, they tailed the blue Ford Focus to another cemetery and watched as the man collected 51 bronze vases attached to grave markers in about 15 minutes. He then drove to a scrap-metal yard, where police say he had already sold hundreds of vases with a replacement value of up to $600 each.
The vases, about 10 inches high and three inches in diameter, are made of bronze, an alloy rich in copper. They typically screw into a plate on the grave marker and are secured with a small chain. Although the price of copper has dropped about 20% this year, most major metals prices are still near historic highs.
22 November 2011
Scum
From a story in the Wall Street Journal:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
As disgusting as that is, what does it say about the scrapyard that bought what they must have known was stolen?
ReplyDeleteIs public shaming really cruel and unusual punishment? Someone like the thief and the buyer could spend some quality time in the stocks …
Somebody recently stole a bronze sword from Lincoln's tomb to scrap as well.
ReplyDeleteugh. stealing from the dead. classy.
ReplyDeleteThe dead didn't mind...
ReplyDelete"The dead didn't mind..."
ReplyDeleteCemetaries are not for the dead.
Here in dallas, some hoods were going around to data centers and hospitals stealing the copper that connects their diesel generators.
ReplyDeleteBut this scrapping is also guardrails, manholes, you name it.
Surely there is more that can be done here.
Like pawn shops, the scrap places need to held accountable when possessing stolen goods.
Not that I believe in reincarnation; but if it really does exist, I hope this loser comes back as a urinal.
ReplyDelete"Cemeteries are not for the dead."
ReplyDeleteYes, you are correct. Sort of how animal surgeons are not really for the animals... if you really think about it.
And I corrected the quote with cemetEries.
;)
Oops. That was a mistake, not just a typo. I remember it felt funny when I typed my comment, but I was in too much of a hurry to stop and check.
ReplyDeleteTx. :.)