Residents are warned – there may be an increase in cemetery thefts before Mother’s Day: “There will also be a row of slabs”

Residents are worried about such acts of vandalism, the police are investigating some of the events, and the caretakers of the cemetery are trying to stop their long fingers.

Marijus Tulauskas, the manager of the Seniava cemetery, showed how malicious people vandalized the monuments. A bas-relief has been torn from one of the monuments, only the still visible outlines and a couple of remaining screws speak of the image of the deceased there. Elsewhere on the monument, only a mark and holes.

The reason for the thefts is being clarified

The leader of the Seniava cemetery showed more monuments that were destroyed by vandals.

“In the middle of March, we received the first message – a person came and spoke. Then we saw on several monuments that it could have been… Since the cemetery is digitized, we looked at the photos taken a few years ago, those bas-reliefs were there, and we saw that they are not there now”, taught M. Tulauskas.

Not only images of saints, plant motifs or various symbols become the prey of long-fingered animals. Thieves don’t stop peeling the bas-reliefs of buried people. By the way, most of these were stolen.

Residents who came to clean the graves are shocked by such vile things and call it blasphemy:

“It’s terrible, what can be said here, it’s completely dehumanized.”

“You can’t even bring flowers from graves, if they’re very beautiful to you, because you’ll invite trouble, and here now those people aren’t afraid of trouble.”

Residents are busy

Thieves are rampant not only in the Seniava cemetery. The company “Kapinių bereža” received reports about damaged monuments from people visiting the graves of their relatives in the Karmėlava cemetery. So, they say, there is a new shocking trend here – long-fingered thieves are mass-stealing items that decorate graves, mostly made of non-ferrous metals.

“I don’t know what caused it, whether it was an increase in the purchase price of metal, or whether there were collectors who are interested in the artefacts,” pondered Ričardas Česna, the director of “Kapinių sprežių”.

People are scrambling, they say, nothing is sacred to thieves – cemeteries often become their target, flowers, bushes, more beautiful candlesticks disappear:

“The cross used to be stolen, the suns were metal, well, what has changed, nothing. People have remained the same.”

“There will also be a row of panels, see how much they cost. If they don’t find metal, I don’t know, it’s a matter of conscience.”

“Standard cemetery fences were being stolen, someone would polish them and sell them as new cheaply. There was a trend, we controlled it – we introduced requirements to submit product documents, it became more complicated to do these things”, R. Čėsna taught.

Alerted for Mother’s Day

Residents are considering whether more video surveillance cameras should be installed in the cemetery.

“What could that camera do in Karmėlava, which has an area of ​​40 hectares and we are talking about elements near some grave site, you will not add cameras to every grave site. Especially since the night vision of the cameras is of extremely poor quality and can only be seen up close,” explained the director of “Cemetery Maintenance”.

The police say they have already received several reports of thefts from cemeteries this year as well. Unfortunately, some people decided not to contact the authorities.

“By the middle of April, we received 3 reports of thefts in the cemetery, Kaunas city cemetery. Pre-trial investigations have been initiated in 2 cases, and administrative proceedings have been initiated in 1 case,” police representative Odeta Vaitkevičienė testified.

Currently, about 10 damaged monuments are known. It is assumed that this week the reports of stolen metal decorative elements of cemeteries may increase, because before Mother’s Day, Lithuanians flock to clean the graves of their loved ones in great numbers.

More on that in the video above.