“A local cemetery began seeing a large amount of flower urns missing. The cemetery did not report the thefts to police but did send a letter to a local scrap yard advising of the thefts. One month later, we were made aware of the incident by an employee at a local scrap yard but were unable to locate the person selling the flower urns. Upon searching the LeadsOnline database we found another suspect who was related to the person in question and were able to further the investigation. Four suspects were arrested and two of them confessed to the crime. The four suspects were responsible for taking more than 600 flower urns from the cemetary. Three of them were charged with 612 counts of theft of copper from a cemetery and are currently in jail awaiting trial. The fourth suspect is also in jail and was charged with 30 counts of theft of copper from a cemetery. Photographs obtained from the LeadsOnline database clearly show the suspects selling the flower urns. The suspects cut the urns up in several pieces before selling them. The total loss to the cemetery is over $100,000.”
Det. Chance Cappel
Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office
Louisiana