Thieves steal metal vases at cemetery

HOUSTON – Thieves are breaking the hearts of families who visit their loved ones' final resting place in northeast Houston.

"This would be the last place I would feel like something like this would happen," William Green said.

Green and his sister, Paula Johnson, went to Brookside Cemetery on Lauder Road over the weekend to visit their grandparents' gravesite. Green said their grandparents' personalized metal vases were stolen from their memorials.

"It would have to be one of the lowest things on Earth for people to do … is to steal from the dead," Green said.

"I could not believe that someone would steal from a cemetery," Johnson said. "We have had flowers taken, but to steal our grandparents' names."

Green said he does not know when the vases were taken, but he said his relatives weren't the only victims.

"I was told, when I reported it, that they had 50 of the same occurrences happen here," Green said. "Fifty alone in the baby section."

Cemetery officials said they have had about a dozen thefts. They said they are working with police and the affected families to help them replace their stolen property.

Green and Johnson said they think the cemetery should be doing more to protect their loved ones.

"I hope they reevaluate their security," Johnson said.

Dignity Memorial owns the cemetery. Company officials said the cemetery has a daily private security patrol and they don't have plans to increase the security measures already in place.