Memorial Flowers Taken - Page 3

MarcyG72 · ‎08-20-2012

Hippie, It happened to me years ago ... flowers I had placed on my grandparents' large headstone... the type of "arrangement" with a saddle underneath a basket of silk flowers. Now I use 50 lb. fishing line, wrap tightly around the entire stone, and secure more line around the flowers ... impossible to take unless a person has a pocketknife with them.

There are no words to describe a person who would steal from a graveyard.

happycat · ‎09-18-2010

I would be mad too. It hasn't happened to me, that I know of anyway.

My mother in law had it happen last year. She had placed a saddle tyle arrangement on a family members headstone and went back a few weeks later and it was gone. She said she looked for it, thinking perhaps the wind had blown it off, but it was no where to be found.

More and more it seems like folks have no moral compass.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

At the cemetery where DH's family are buried you are still allowed to plant so we put geraniums under the large stone with the family name on it - then mulch between that and the first set of headstones so the cemetery doen't have anything to mow where the flowers are, and thus , they don't bother them. Since we aren't going home this year we asked our dear nephew if he would do this and he said he would. He sent an e mail with photos - he did much better than we ever did. Much prettier with several different flowers in red /white and yellow.

dex · ‎03-09-2010

Well I hate to admit this but I stole flowers when I was a young child.We were really poor and I didn’t have money for gifts.I saw those beautiful flowers at a cemetery and took a few for my mom.She was really surprised but also upset when I told her where I got them.She told me that I should never steal from the dead or they could become angry and make something bad happen in my life.So I of course never did that again and I worried for the longest time that someone was going to come to haunt me in the night.She didn’t explain though that the families who delivered those flowers to a loved one would be sad and angry but I was so frightened by what she did say that I stayed away from that cemetery for years.

I just wonder if children might be the culprits thinking they have a nice present for their parent.

Dominosmom · ‎07-17-2010

Years ago I had a neighbor who raided the local cemetry for dried out potted tulips and daffodils. She had the decency to only take those pots that the cemetry groundskeepers were disposing off usally only during the early summer months. In the fall she would replant the bulbs. She is long gone but her garden is still gorgeous in the spring.

nun ya · ‎03-09-2010

Someone stole a live Christmas wreath and the metal stand my Mother placed on my Dad's grave.

I don't understand people.

nun ya · ‎03-09-2010

@dex wrote:
Well I hate to admit this but I stole flowers when I was a young child.We were really poor and I didn’t have money for gifts.I saw those beautiful flowers at a cemetery and took a few for my mom.She was really surprised but also upset when I told her where I got them.She told me that I should never steal from the dead or they could become angry and make something bad happen in my life.So I of course never did that again and I worried for the longest time that someone was going to come to haunt me in the night.She didn’t explain though that the families who delivered those flowers to a loved one would be sad and angry but I was so frightened by what she did say that I stayed away from that cemetery for years.
I just wonder if children might be the culprits thinking they have a nice present for their parent.

I cut my neighbors rose bushes when I was 5 and gave the flowers to my Mom. She made me go over and tell what I had done.

BirkiLady · ‎02-22-2015

Several years ago, we went to my maternal grandparents family plot in Omaha. Near the large headstone are two bronze flower vases which are placed deep in the ground by the groundskeepers when not in use. I started to pull the first one out of the ground and it was not there; just a vacant hole with a bronze circle embedded in the ground. Obviously, the vase had been stolen! Checked the other one; it was also missing.

Contacted the cemetery office, who called the Police Dept. and reported the theft. The price of copper had gone up so much that theives were taking vases from all cemeteries, piping/wiring in vacant homes, etc.

Those vases had been purchased by my grandparents in the 1960's and are no longer being made. I couldn't purchased exact vases, but did have the cemetery replace them with two more of the same size and quality.

The cemetery suggested having the holes filled with dirt and avoiding more theft. Due to the expense, if it happens again, I probably will not spend so much money and have the cemetery go ahead and fill up those holes.

We haven't had any thefts again and I enjoy placing fresh seasonal flowers on those plots. It is sad and so unexpected to have something happen to a loved one's grave. Didn't feel angry; just surprised and disappointed that it happened.

Money screams; wealth whispers.

RainCityWoman · ‎06-16-2015

I've never had it happen....yet, but I know it does. In fact, when I was in college, I found out that one fraternity had their pledges go out and steal flowers from the cemeteries to use as decorations for their spring formal. Repugnant.

SahmIam · ‎04-16-2010

As my Daddy would say: "There's a Special Place for those types with the Devil himself".

True story:

Many years ago our local paper ran a story about a bride who didn't want to spend money on flowers for her wedding so she and her bridesmaids helped themselves to flowers set an FRESH gravesites. They drove around to the numerous cites around the area and took as much as they could fit in their cars/trucks. We're talking huge arrangements in some cases.

How did the police catch wind of it? A guest at her wedding recognized an arrangement (it was huge and sat front and center on the alter) as one she and her siblings had ordered and placed on her grandmothers grave a few days earlier(!!!!!!!).

Not sure what was worse: the fact that the bride and her friends did this OR the fact that NONE of them saw any PROBLEM with it!! "Well, they're dead so....they don't know" when asked why the hit up cemeteries.

What a lovely group of young women. NOT.