Sacred Resting Place Violated

Floral Garden Memorial Park is a beautiful cemetery located in the heart of High Point in Guilford County. A place where people can visit their loved ones in peace and to enjoy the uniqueness of the park. One would think a cemetery is a sacred place, a transitional place for the body until the soul is reunited with it in a heavenly place.

Most of us have this feeling about the resting place of the deceased and some feel the need to victimize it and it's guests. Floral Garden has fell victim to thieves who have disturbed the graves at this lovely park. 158 bronze vases were stolen over the weekend at a staggering loss of $31,600, which is around $200 per grave site. A felonious amount no doubt.

High Police has no suspect information and is requesting help with the investigation. Bronze material such as vases can bring $15 each from local scrap yards. Theft from cemeteries has picked up over the years and current laws only address the value of the property taken. The law does not address the affect this has on loved ones who visit and care for the grave sites. Replacing the vases is very expensive and most of the time the cemetery is not responsible for covering the cost of the material.

I feel it's time for our legislators to address the issue of thievery regarding bronze vases at cemeteries. This unconscionable conduct by thugs can be stopped by preventing recycling companies from purchasing the vases! Copper metal is hard to figure out where it comes from or if there's a victim attached to the property. Bronze vases from cemeteries is just that, vases from a cemetery. There is a law in place where the larceny of baby formula is a Class H felony if the value exceeds $100; thats around six cans. Let's make it a felony to steal one bronze vases from a cemetery! Even though the value is less than $1000 (the level for a felony on larceny) this would be a start. Cemeteries can post signs throughout the park with the new law and the penalties in plain view. And recycling companies who purchase bronze cemetery vases would be fined up to $1000 per vase!

Do a Google search for larceny of cemetery vases and see how many stories such as this one exist. Creating harsh penalties or fines for thugs and recycling companies who purchase cemetery vases is the only way to curtail this horrible violation of peace and tranquility. Who is with me?