Thieves Stealing Markers from Veterans' Graves

Source: AP

DES MOINES (AP) - Police in Des Moines were checking cemeteries throughout the city for missing bronze markers on the graves of military veterans.

As many as 210 of the markers, which contain flag holders, were recently reported stolen from Laurel Hill Cemetery on the east side of Des Moines and from Glendale Cemetery on the west side of the city.

Police believe the marker thieves are selling the bronze markers as scrap metal.

Polk County Veterans Affairs Director David DeBolt says his agency supplies the markers to families who request them and is currently handling dozens of requests, mostly from Laurel Hill and Glendale.

Read more: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/46381677.html

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Bad enough these scum are stealing from the dead, but they're stealing from deceased veterans. I hope law enforcement catches the scumbags that do this.

While ignoring their plight.

The first one to come in with at least 100 veterans' monuments wins a new car!

How about a voucher for free meals and a warm bed?

Fine, they'll get them both in jail.

Instead of working to fix the problem, just lock them away.

They are dirtbags who defaced the graves of veterans. Criminals are not always social cases, many times they are people who deserve to be locked away.

Sentence them in accordance with the law. There a whole hell of a lot of poor people in this country that do not resort to robbing cemetaries of sellable brass.

...give a pass to people stealing from the dead....

I guess that in good economic times, no one steals and it is all rainbows and puppies.

:eyes:

...stealing from the grieving loved ones....

Better?

But I sure as fuck do!

plaques, manhole covers, aluminum siding and sell it for scrap because it really is hard work and it doesn't pay SHIT.

These are the same people that will go into a vacant house and tear out copper tubing and copper wiring, spending hours working for a hundred bucks worth of copper. Minimum wage jobs pay better - if they are available.

Yep, and they don't involve the risk of going to jail. People who do these things are desperate.

...tear out copper tubing and copper wiring, spending hours working for a hundred bucks worth of copper. Minimum wage jobs pay better.

Living the American dream!

on edit: I'd rather sweep my own floor for 16 hours a day than someone else's for 8...

There were a couple of construction workers from the Boston area not too long ago that stole some restored bronze fittings that were being used on the Longfellow bridge. They were dumb and were caught.

http://wbztv.com/local/longfellow.bridge.metal.2.815076.html


Some people may be desperate, but these guys were a walking joke.

on a conservative blog or in a conservative column claiming liberals are doing this because they hate veterans.

I would be pretty confident betting this is the work of meth addicts,

this totally sounds like meth addict activity. We've had problems with methers' stealing the copper grounding network out of sub stations around here. Only a matter a of time before some addicted dumb ass gets blown to bits.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6469720

Thieves came back the following Spring, did it again and setup a meth lab in a neighboring cabin.

If it were meth addicts, wouldn't this have been happening before?

Your belief doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

There has been a documented increase in the theft of copper, brass and other metals since the recession hit.

Metal theft has taken off in the last couple of years because Chinese demand has driven up metal prices. If you want to believe it is unemployed Java developers or former machinists stealing every trace of publicly accessible metal well your belief is insane.

So according to you most of the thefts are from meth heads.

Then explain the two real estate agents who were arrested in my town for stealing wiring from houses they listed at their former employer.

The Java developers are now selling java at Starbucks - and it is the displaced baristas who have no marketable skills who are reduced to this.

Employment is a slope, not a cliff. Most people with skills and a strong employment history are able to find new jobs, but only with downward mobility - and as they move down they push down those below them. The marginally employed and high school grads that can't afford to go any farther are finding THEIR jobs taken by professionals.

I work p/t at a movie theater - one co-worker is a firefighter; one is a school teacher nearing retirement, and of course, there is me; all taking jobs from the high schoolers who normally work there.

That's where metal thieves come from. Some few might be professional criminals, but seriously, the work is too hard and the rewards too slim to attract any self-respecting crook.

This is not a new crime and has nothing to do with the economy. It has to do with lazy, rat bastard criminals. 20 years ago a company I worked for had to replace all of it's downspouts with PVC because of theft. 30 yrs ago my parents replaced the aluminum siding on the detached garage with vinyl because thieves took the backside siding.

Thieves are stupid and lazy. There is no IQ test for criminals. Look at the number of times people are killed being mugged for pocket change. These folks aren't Warren Buffet.

Some of these "desperate people" are doing nothing but funding their drug habits.

That's lower than whaleshit, actually.

Assholes.

and we regulate that all bronze markers be bolted onto a granite base. We haven't had much theft here, but unfortunately it happens. People even steal flowers and trinkets off of graves. I am lucky enough to have law enforcement keep an eye on it.

Memorial vandalized
STAFF REPORTS

Posted on Wednesday, May 27, 2009

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Thieves stole an estimated $10,000 in property from the Veterans Wall of Honor on the north side of Lake Bella Vista over the weekend.

More than a dozen flags and a half dozen plaques were taken, according to one official with the Veteran's Council of Northwest Arkansas.

more:

http://www.nwanews.com/bvwv/News/8822/

doing this - the property, valued at $10,000, probably has value as scrap of less than $500.

It is STILL a crime of desperation.

if Bush were still President and everything was rosy!

I hope they quickly receive their richly-deserved fate.

Said his family member is the CARETAKER of a cemetery and they removed the markers because thieves were taking them. :eyes:

Told him no thanks and sent him packin'.

They even steal entire ATM machines!