Posted on 07/24/2014 7:43:43 AM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Artificial flowers and flags are being pulled at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery.
It’s not that they are prohibited, it’s that they are being pilfered and Cemetery Administrator Joe Larson cannot fathom why people are stealing them from in-ground burial sites.
Apparently the thefts happened Saturday night and it wasn’t until a woman let Larson know on Monday that the artificial flowers from her loved one’s grave were taken, noting they were not there on Sunday.
“We’ve had a number of other complaints this week about the stealing of artificial flowers and flags, but no real flowers being taken. … ,” Larson said Wednesday.
There are nearly 400 graves in Section 2 at the cemetery and about a quarter of them were apparently hit, Larson said.
What people have to understand the taking of anything from the cemetery, which is state-operated, “is theft of state property,” he said, noting the Sierra Vista Police Department does patrol the cemetery.
On the first and third Monday’s of each month flowers, real and artificial, are removed and the real ones are discarded.
Artificial flowers are retained for 30 days in case a family wants to have them back, and if not, then they are discarded, Larson said.
Why anyone is stealing flowers makes no sense to Larson, especially since they are placed to “honor a loved one.”
You’ll find most of them on the porches and balconies and flea markets of the “immigrants”. Case closed.
I despise artificial flowers, especially in graveyards. Tacky.
Check the street corners near the cemetery. People will be there reselling them.
When the thief has no sense of community or social values, something available to be taken is just an open invitation to take!
Somebody who’d do that is just a sorry SOB you needs to be shot.
That’s a sign of the times. It’s really disrespectful and low.
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