[charlene]

it's been happening here too: 800 of them!
Case of the missing urns
TheStar.com - News - Case of the missing urns

Police suspect high price for bronze behind theft of 800 tombstone urns

May 23, 2007
Debra Black
Justin Piercy
Staff Reporters

John Willox and his girlfriend had hoped to place some flowers at her father's grave over the weekend. It was the second anniversary of his death and they wanted to mark it.

But when they arrived at Glendale Memorial Gardens in Toronto's west end they found the bronze flower vase mounted on the tombstone was gone. So were the vases on about a dozen other tombstones nearby, all part of an apparent theft of about 800 vases from the Albion Rd. cemetery.

The solid bronze vases were likely taken to be sold for scrap metal, said Detective Robert Gallant of Toronto Police's 23 Division. "My understanding is that it's a problem throughout the city."

If sold on the open market the vases would be worth a bundle; scrap metal dealers are currently buying bronze for about $2.50 a pound.

Bronze, copper and nickel thefts have been rampant worldwide as scrap metal prices have soared. But when contacted yesterday by the Star no other GTA cemeteries reported any thefts.


Last December a 5-metre tall bronze statue of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko was stolen from a park in Oakville. Two men were charged after the head was taken to a Burlington recycler, who contacted police.

In the cemetary case, police have charged a 77-year-old man – whose wife is buried in the cemetery – after finding his car nearby with 60 stolen vases. Police are not releasing his name. No other charges have yet been laid in the theft of the other hundreds of vases.

But Willox and his girlfriend, who did not want to be identified, knew none of this when they went to her father's grave. "I thought they must be cleaning or doing something," he said. "These things are all made of bronze and weigh close to five pounds each."

The pair also visited the grave of her uncle, about 100 yards away. They found other graves nearby were also missing the vases. Willox went to the cemetery office to find out what was going on. He said he spoke to an unidentified official and was told police had been called and a man had been charged last month.

"It's unbelievable that somebody would do something like this and certainly we regret that the families who have their loved ones there have to go through this kind of upset," said Gary Carmichael, vice-president of government and corporate affairs for Memorial Gardens Canada, which owns Glendale Memorial Gardens.

The cemetery is trying to determine just how many vases were taken and from which graves, Carmichael said, and will then contact all families.

The cemetery has stepped up security and will be working with police to see if any other measures should be taken. Negotiations are now underway to replace the missing vases. Carmichael hopes at least some of them will be recovered by police and returned.

But Willox isn't satisfied. "We don't know if it had happened recently, a day or a week ago, or even been months since it happened. No one has received any notice over this, and I don't know if any other families know this has happened."

Willox said the cemetery has contacted the manufacturer to try to negotiate a deal where families would only have to pay 50 per cent of the replacement cost. "It just seems ridiculous to get the families to replace them ... and what about families that have no one left?" said Willox.

Carmichael, however, said the question of who will pay and how the bronze vases will be replaced is under "discussion."

With files from Adrian Ma