Portsmouth, Va. - While visiting his parents' graves Tuesday at Evergreen Memorial Park in Portsmouth Barry Gartman realized something was missing.
“I was devastated when I got to mine and found that mine was gone,” says Barry Gartman.
Someone stole a brass vase that was attached to their markers.
Gartman says he's not the first victim.
A few weeks ago, someone else alerted him that they were being stolen.
“A lady walked over that was at the cemetery and said, ‘Oh, I`m glad to see you still have your vase’ and I said ‘What do you mean?’ She pointed about 100 feet away and she said, ‘We`ve got some gravesites over there and all of our vases were stolen,’” says Gartman.
That's why Gartman snapped a picture at the time of his parents’ markers with the vase and called police to notify them of the other thefts.
He says finding out yesterday that his parents' grave markers were the latest to be disturbed was devastating.
Gartman says he's hoping scrap metal buyers will start taking a closer look at what people are bringing in.
“These things are very unique, it`s not something you set on your desk because the bottom is a huge plug that goes into the hole in your marker,” says Gartman.
Gartman says if they realize it's coming from a gravesite, he's hoping they'll call police so they can catch whoever is trying to profit by stealing from a cemetery.
“I can`t understand how people can do this, I mean you go there to grieve and when you go there to find your marker messed up, that`s horrible, that`s a horrible feeling,” says Gartman.
