Police continuing investigation into cemetery thefts
Lori C. Padilla
The headstone vases belonging to a large number of burial plots in Green Ridge Cemetery have been stolen with the most vases taken from Veteran蘑菇视频 Circle. Blaine Brooks, head of maintenance, explained phone calls began coming into the office about missing vases which led to an account of over 400 missing from various areas in the cemetery.
Kelly Tunney | 蘑菇视频
Section N of Green Ridge Memorial Park is the hardest-hit section, likely because it is not visible from Route 119 or the cemetery office. Most other stolen vases are from graves hidden behind the ridge as well.
Lori C. Padilla
The headstone vases belonging to over 400 burial plots in Greenridge Cemetary have been reported stolen, with a large number of them taken from Veteran蘑菇视频 Circle.
Kelly Tunney | 蘑菇视频
The Green Ridge Memorial Park has around 11,000 grave markers, 90% of which have vases. Park superintendent Blaine Brooks estimates that the weight of the stolen vases is around two tons.
Kelly Tunney | 蘑菇视频
Blaine Brooks, park superintendent, began to realize how many vases had been stolen when he got out of his truck and saw an entire section of the cemetery without vases.
Families and cemetery managers are reeling after an estimated $80,000 theft of bronze vases from the Green Ridge Memorial Park.
About 400 graves at the Bullskin Township cemetery are missing their vases after the slew of thefts, which was reported last week.
Memorial park President Rick Brooks said the impact of the thefts has been severe on both the cemetery managers and the loved ones of those whose graves were vandalized.
鈥淚t蘑菇视频 been extremely difficult, not only for them, but for us dealing with the fact that it happened as proprietors of the cemetery. Our heartfelt concern is with the families,鈥� he said.
He said the cemetery has never experienced thefts before. The memorial park opened 34 years ago.
In 2013, more than 20 people reported bronze vases stolen from cemeteries at Lafayette Memorial Park in Brier Hill. In 2006, more than 125 bronze vases were stolen from that cemetery.
The vases were stolen from multiple sections of the cemetery, but were concentrated on the upper side of the memorial park, which houses 11,000 markers.
Park Superintendent Blaine Brooks said he believes the thefts happened over a period of several days. Each vase weighs up to 10 pounds, he said, with the total weight of stolen vases nearing two tons.
Cemetery managers are working with an insurance company to develop a replacement plan. They are also cataloging the plots with missing vases.
Brooks said social media enabled the cemetery to put a notice out to family members. Many have been coming to the cemetery to see if a plot belonging to their family member was vandalized.
Many responded to the news with anger directed at the thieves on Facebook as they discovered that a vase was missing from their family member蘑菇视频 grave.
Rick Brooks said family members have been extremely supportive of the cemetery.
State police are continuing their investigation into the thefts. No charges were filed in the case at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Anyone with information is asked to call state police in Uniontown at 724-264-7111.