This is just awful and should be a felony. It’s bad enough when flowers were being stolen but now this. I feel to need to drive 350 miles to check on my dad’s grave. This is one crime I WOULD take into my own hands. Forget the courts - waste of time. I better not catch someone doing this to any grave or I’ll be on the news for beating the crap out of someone.

What despicable acts. This is a new low, but in today’s society it does not surprise me.

If catch them; there will be a new grave(s) in the cemetery.

These metal companies MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE for receiving STOLEN PROPERTY. It is as simple as that.

What’s next? Many grave markers and memorials are bronze. How long will it be before thieves start stealing them? Stealing, defacing, and tipping grave markers are all heinous crimes in my book and deserve serious punishment if and when the perps are caught.

The scrap metal dealers should make an effort of either turning these individuals in or refusing to accept
the vases.

Greed is an incredibly ugly monster. It is hard to understand why human beings do some of the things they do for money. These people obviously have no conscience, and little or no regard for the people they hurt. These are the kinds of people that have no use to society, and it is high time we start cleaning house.

What’s next? Many markers and memorials are made of bronze. Will the thieves be stealing them, too? Stealing, defacing, and tipping tombstones and memorials is a heinous crime as far as I’m concerned. The perps, if and when caught, should suffer the maximum punishment available.

So why don’t we crack down on the scrap yard dealers who are buying these items from the criminals? I’m mean it’s obvious the copper vases have been stolen when a guy shows up with several.

Isn’t this kind of act a ticket straight into hell??

Pamela,…I’m with ya on this one. You hold em’ and I’ll work em over, then we’ll switch and you can clobber them. Some folks just have ZERO humanity left in them.

Shoot the thieves on sight and prosecute the scrapyard owners/operators/employess for taking the knowingly stolen metal. This epidemic is not restricted to graveyards but anywhere the thieves can steal copper, bronze, steel, aluminum, etc. This theft is everywhere and it’s big business for the underground ecomony crowd. Nothing is sacred….manhole covers, air conditioning units, house wiring, landscape lighting fixtures, washing machines, dryers and anything else these SOB’s can lift and sell quickly to the scrapyards who know most of the stuff is stolen.

Shoot the pieces of trash stealing them and the problem will be solved.

We had metal ornaments stolen for the grave of our son, my stepson, PFC Enrique Carlos Sanchez, who was killed in Iraq in 2006. These people make me sick.

Any scrap dealer who buys stolen copper should be jailed for 20 years and have his/her business confiscated.

People don’t consider how this feels until it happens to them.Just goes to show how little empathy and compassion some people have.

I agree that this is just awful. Those Thieves have no respect for the loved ones of the deceased nor those that have died . I mean who would want to steal a lovely vase left as a gift to show you care for a loved one? That’s Terrible.

Now we have to be careful when we leave vases and Flowers for our loved ones at local cemetaries? — Why we never have had this problem before, and I hope there is security to keep watch on the cemetaries.
Those that have died deserve to be RIP, and not disturbed like this.

I would be devestated if my Grandparents graves Flowers where removed, and the vase was gone. — That is a gift to them, and shouldn’t be touched.

This certainly makes me mad reading about this.

Well I hope and Pray that they catch the thieves that are doing this! They should be careful, because its not wise to disturb those that are deceased.

The loss of art in cemeteries, of which vases are a part, is of incalculable harm. Not only does it cause further suffering to the families and friends involved, it is a loss for each local community and even also for America as a whole. Some of the greatest unheralded art In America is located in cemeteries, in the forms of mausoleums, statuary, headstones , crypt boundary markers, and the like. Once gone, it can not be replaced. Nineteenth-century cemetery art is part of our national heritage. Statuary like copper and bronze angels is unavailable at any price; it is the same as robbing the National Gallery of Art. These crimes must be punishable by long prison sentences, without parole. The thefts must be recognized for what they are, crimes, not a form of “assistance” to “some unfortunate person”. No one needs to steal what belongs to the American people.

You stay classy Pamela!

This is a sad commentary on todays economic situation and those affected by it. The people that do this sort of thing would steal the pennies off a dead man’s eyes. We have elected officials in goverment positions that should understand the need for jobs in this country. The salvage dealers that purchase items such as these are as guilty the perpetrators. We have a very serious economic problem in this country that is creeping into a very large segment of those who as of yet have not been affected. But it’s inevitable, they will be. I my opinion the action required to avoid this will not be in time. We have too many in political office that are basically doing the same thing to the tax payer. It’s absolutely ridiculous, the goverment makes a one cent coin that costs three cents to manufacture, and that elected goverment officials are making profits from investments in military manufacture. It should be a crime to profit from WAR, But war is good business for some. All the politicians love people that fat, dumb, and happy. Approximately 80% of the population is overweght, thus a severe problem with diabetes, the educational systems have been dumbed down, so as not have have anyone lose their self-esteem, The U.S. Border Patrol had to reduce their test scores for applicants from 80% to 70% to fill several thousand jobs, And “HAPPY” The economic stimulus package will provede hundreds of thousands with Play Station Threes. WE NEED SOME REAL DISIPLINE IN THIS COUNTRY, AND THERE ISN’T A POLITICIAN WILLING TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!! MANY OF THE LARGE CITIES IN THE ARE EXPERIENCING SITUATIONS WHERE ONLY HALF OF THE STUDENTS IN HIGH SCHOOL ARE GRADUATING. Here is a potential grave robber or worse. They find they can make more money selling drugs than if they go to school to become eligible to work at Wal-Mart or McDonalds.

I can attest at my grandmother’s funeral not more than 30 minutes after the funeral home had completed the burial I drove back to find a couple stealing the flower arrangements. Obviously they drove off when they saw me and a few others coming. It is just disgusting how low people are.

Stopping these scum-bags will be very hard, but busting the scum-bags that buy the copper should be easy,, Go get ‘um fuzzzz !

MikeK

Unfortunately, this is not new. I work as a funeral director in a rural Wisconsin town, and cemeteries around here have had problems with not only vases, but bronze plaques marking the graves of veterans. The plaques are forcefully stolen from the back side of headstones. Not only are the plaques taken, but there is damage done to the headstone. Just something else families have to deal with.

Two Words… Rock Salt!

Time to make fake bronze vases. Even a cast iron one should cost under $50.00 and have less scrap value. Sorry to the people vandalized.

And some people wonder why I carry (legally).

This act is definitely appalling. I agree that these types of acts should be punishable to the fullest extent of the law. This really shows us the times we live in, how we’ve let this once proud country get away from God. Brace yourselves because it is only going to get worse, because we’ve allowed it to. May the Lord have mercy on us.

The people that do this are the lowest of the low. We had our childs stolen. This should be a serious crime for both those that steal and the scrap dealers. They have to know where this is coming from. I say mandatory prison time for the person accepting the vases and those that own the scrap yards. They are just as guilty. My wife and I were deeply hurt over this. We already lost oour daughter.

Beth…..why do I get the feeling you are being sarcastic? That’s very rude of you. The topic is a serious one, and the issue of the vases being stolen should be treated as such. Of COURSE family members will become angry and want to beat the crap out of the thieves! To volley a remark such as yours at Pamela is uncalled for and uncouth, and definitely NOT classy. You may think you are clever but by saying such a thing you are as bad as the thieves we are discussing.

I felt bad enough when I went to visit my baby son’s grave and a toy I left behind had been stolen. I can’t imagine what I would feel if I were to go back and find that his vase had been stolen as well.

I have felt bad for having moved 700 miles away from his gravesite and only being able to see him once in seven years. Now I’m scared that someone might come and steal what little I could ever give him and I wouldn’t know it for years: if ever.

I hate a thief, but a thief that steals from the dead doesn’t even deserve that emotion.

If monetary benefit is the reason for the criminal behavior, then the answer is simple–make the criminals pay for the destruction they have caused–through manual labor. Criminals are by nature lazy and predatory. Having them work to pay RESTITUTION is the key to eliminating such crimes, along with public disclosure and suitable punishment–no more air conditioning or relaxing at the taxpayers expense. Chaingangs are much more effective at changing behavior. Such a penalty will also deter future thievery by such losers.

People have been stealing vases for years in a cemetery close to Enterprise, AL. People who do this kind of thing are sick and unfortunately are hardly ever caught. Why some crackhead would want to steal from someone who has lost a loved one is beyond me! It is just sick!

Lets start selling the caught theives on the black market…A little reversal of fortune if you will. I mean, you can get a bunch of money for organs and limbs…everything but the brain should have some value..obviously the brains are faulty. Mike for Pres!!!

According to you protestants, once saved always saved, it does not matter what you do, so the thief is probably a protestant, going straight to Heaven…

My mother’s vase was stolen just days after we buried her, and I am now faced with whether to purchase a vase for my husband’s grave. I am probably NOT going to play into the hands of thieves by purchasing a bronze vase. I may order a granite one instead. There should be a hefty fine for anyone accepting these vases, scrapyards or not! Anyone that would steal from the dead or their families is just plain evil and a selfish heartless mongrel. We reap what we sow so all I can say is ‘heaven help them’ because it’ll come back on them everyone!

Yet still another example of the moral decay that has spread throughout our country. You can be sure that if the culprits are caught, some far left judge will ensure that they suffer little or no consequence for their sick deeds. You can also be sure that the courts will justify their actions based on their beliefs that our country is so terrible. Wake up America! Take action. Don’t just sit in the background and expect someone else to fix what is broken due to our inaction. Hold politicians and Judges ACCOUNTABLE!!!

Until our judicial system becomes a deterrent instead of an inconvenience these crimes and others like it will occur. The thieves know first hand what awaits them if caught. A slap on the wrist is not working. Petty crimes abound with graffiti, copper thefts (they even stole the copper tubing off the A/C units at the elementary school), streetlights are out, anti-siphon valves from the water systems, the tops of fire hydrants and the list continues with little to nothing happening to those who are stealing these items and many more. Parents are not responsible for their children or their actions. And the recycling centers who buy these stolen goods are also the blame. When getting caught (and they will) means the thief will spend a very long time at hard labor like what is found in the Sheriff’s jail in Mariposa Arizona (tents and chain gains) for extended lengths of time, it will continue.

Vanessa — I only wish the treat of jail solved something, I wish it were a deterrent. It is obviously not, alas.

I agree with your sentiment about art. My great grandfather was a sculptor in bronze. He was a worker in the foundry (but not the designer of) the Winged Mercury that stood on the lampposts of 5th Ave, NYC. The whereabouts of only 4 statues are known to the public — I know where the 5th is, however. As much as those Winged Mercuries might be prized, my grandfather would have been honored to have worked on something so much more precious as works created to the memory of those beloved and now passed. Maybe he did?

I know what my copy of the Mercury means to me as the work of my great grandfather’s hand. I cannot, however, begin to imagine the feeling of loss of a monument to the memory of my loved one — artifact or not, valuable or not.

Pieter — Words cannot express my sympathy for your loss or my grief for the defacing of the grave of a brave and valiant young man to whom we are eternally in debt as Americans. May he truly rest in the peace for which he sought to fight for our country.

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I Feel a revolution commin on. 10 years or less.

Just Why don’t the Scrap Dealers help out in catching these Criminals. all they need to do is pretend they are going to buy this stolen copper/ Brass , Get the sellers Name/address of an ID, write down the vehicle plate number, Then Tell the Thief to get off there property, Then Call the police and Give the police the info

20 bucks says it is mexicans and other hispanics in the country illegally.

They also steal the aluminum guard rails off bridges in CA, nice !
You see, they can’t help it, theivery is an acceptable part of their life, like stomping their kids to death on the side of the road and breaking into your house drunk at night and sleeping in your infant or childs bed, which has happened several times in my area.

As long as you let them stay and dont run them out, you will live with this stuff, the blame is YOURS for not doing something about it.

Remember, we the people, YOU are the people, stop letting politicians and liberla walk all over you, it’s your country, TAKE IT BACK.

I am a District Manager for Clark Memorials in Alabama. Unfortunately, we’ve dealt with this problem for a while. The cemeteries may not like this, but you can epoxy the vases in place. You won’t be able to turn the vase upside down, but it will hopefully deter any future theft. Be sure to drill a hole in the bottom of the vase if you do this so water can drain out.

Also…..to deter the theft of the marker itself, make sure the marker is set in concrete with a granite base. The concrete will adhere to the back of the granite (and the bolts that actually hold the bronze to the granite) and make it more difficult to remove.

I don’t encourage or discourage the sale of vases, but if you live far away from the cemetery, you might want think about a picture instead of a vase…..just something to think about!

If these vases are so easy to steal and they cost hundreds of dollars, must they be made of bronze? Surely there is something which can replace bronze, but be worthless to thieves. Recycled molded plastic maybe? Bronze painted clay vases?

Well at least the scrap yards in one state have a heart and turned in two thieves who ripped off cemeteries in Tennessee. The scrap yards in Kentucky turned them in and two suspects were arrested. Now if other scrap yards would get a heart and turn in the thieves. Michigan has been hit bad with this, and the greedy scrap yard owners just take the stuff. The police need to set up stings on scrap yards and prosecute to the fullest. It was bad enough stealing central air conditioners, and the copper tubing running to your cabin. I release the country is getting bad recession wise but this scrapping needs to be regulated.

This is not limited to items of monetary value. An angel statue and pinwheel were stolen from the grave of my infant son. Together they were worth less than $20. I was so disturbed and hurt when I found that they had been stolen that I won’t put anything else on the grave. People can be so cruel.

Perhaps we should start inbedding rfid chips in the vases.