Evil, Rotten, and Scummy, Redux
April 8, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
An alert cemetery groundskeeper noticed these thieving lowlifes and called the police.
In a macabre twist on the rash of copper thefts that has plagued St. Bernard Parish since Hurricane Katrina, authorities arrested two men accused of stealing more than 200 brass flower vases from a Chalmette cemetery and selling them as scrap metal.
“We’ve come a long way from the apocalyptic days after Katrina, but this is a sad reminder of just how low some people will go,” Sheriff Jack Stephens said.
The suspects allegedly sold most of the vases, which cost $600, to a scrap yard for $1.50 a pound, or about $25 each, sheriff’s deputies said.
Val Terry, 41, and Joseph Scorsone, 42, were arrested Saturday after sheriff’s deputies found 98 vases in the back of Scorsone’s pickup truck parked outside their Jupiter Drive home. The house is just a block from St. Bernard Memorial Gardens, where 223 vases were reported stolen in the past week, Stephens said.
My mother in law and other people I know are buried in this cemetery.
When this happened to him, Bill Jempty described the thieves who stole his son and parent’s vases from the cemetery as Evil, Rotten, and Scummy.
I understand how he feels.
Didn’t the last disgusting batch get caught because the scrap-man said “Wait a sec….this looks like the arm of that statue….”
Probably. I want to be forgiving and rise above it and all that, but this really ticks me off. We have NO shortage of jobs around here since Katrina - gainful employment is available for EVERYONE. Fast food places start at $9 and $10 an hour for goodness sake. There’s no excuse for stealing, and to steal from a cemetery is beyond the pale.