Burial ground burglars

To some thieves, nothing is sacred – not even the mementos left on a loved one’s grave.

People don’t believe it when flowers and other objects left on graves disappear, said Dina Lunen, who lives next to Pines Cemetery.

“That takes a really low-caliber person,” she said. But it happens.

Lunen has worked as a florist in Spokane Valley for years and at a Spokane cemetery before that. The neighborhood keeps an eye out for suspicious activity in the graveyard, but Lunen said she regularly hears from customers who return to her shop for new floral arrangements after someone stole their flowers from an area cemetery.

Thefts at cemeteries have been ongoing for years and cemetery officials say they take their toll on the bereaved.

“They’ll take the little white statues of Mary, they’ll take somebody’s plant,” said Marianna Sasser of the Diocese of Spokane, which maintains the St. Joseph Cemetery on Trent Avenue.

A sign near the entrance warns that thieves that they are subject to prosecution, and the cemetery staff watches for trespassers. But unless they catch someone red-handed, it’s difficult to prevent thefts.

“There’s not a lot that we can do about it,” Sasser said.

Both Pines and St. Joseph are larger cemeteries that would be difficult to completely fence off at night.

Lunen regularly advises people against leaving expensive wooden planters at graves, she said. When they’re stolen, there’s little for police to look into, and the thefts seldom result in criminal investigations.

Pines Cemetery has a cut-flowers only policy for most of the year, but neighbors and officials say more elaborate items often disappear long before cemetery caretakers clear them off.

Around Memorial Day, and throughout the year to a lesser extent, large cemeteries look out for people taking things from the grounds that do not belong to them.

The smaller cemeteries in Spokane Valley have had their share of problems in the past, but caretakers say thefts, trespassing and vandalism aren’t a big issue where the cemetery can be locked up or easily watched by neighbors.

Four or five years ago, volunteers who take care of the Saltese Cemetery on 32nd Avenue installed a cyclone fence and put up a sign warning of a $250 fine for anyone damaging the graves.

“I think that stopped it,” said cemetery board secretary Mary Cabbage.

Wendy Johnson, the president of the Chester Cemetery board, also said incidents at that small cemetery in the Ponderosa neighborhood have been few in recent years.

In the Edgecliff neighborhood, it’s been relatively quiet at the Woodlawn Cemetery since volunteers began cleaning it up several years ago, said Duane Broyles of the Fairmont Memorial Association.

At Fairmont’s bigger cemeteries in Spokane, though, employees are regularly on the lookout for people taking flower arrangements, potted plants and other items that disappear around Memorial Day.

It’s tough to enforce, though, because people who don’t belong there can blend in easily with others visiting grave sites.

Last spring, bronze vases worth an estimated $10,000 disappeared, probably taken by someone looking to recycle the metal, Broyles said.

“I personally think that’s a pretty dastardly deed,” he said.