Vandals Raid Cemetery, Family Speaks - WHNT

A cemetery is a place where the dead are supposed to rest in peace. One family in Madison County says that's not the case for their loved one.They're dealing with acts of grave vandalism and they want it to stop.

[Karla]

People who mess with graves are low lifes. Also, I have not seen the grave referred to in this story so I am speaking in general terms, not of this family's experience.

That being said, I sometimes think that putting so many 'extras' on graves is done more for the benefit of the living than for the person who is buried. A decent burial and a tombstone marking the spot are respectful and dignified, and are a wonderful tribute to the deceased.

The more elaborate the decoration, the more of a temptation the gravesite will be for vandals.

The cemetery where my grandmother is buried has Decoration early in the year. People routinely steal the flowers to take to later decoration days at other churches. After donating flowers to these hicks for a few years, we decided to only put flowers in the vases and not on top of the stone. Her flowers have not been bothered since, and it is a relief to be able to go to Decoration Day and not have the hatred simmering in my heart that I had when we'd show up on Sunday morning and find the flowers stolen.

Folk ought to be able to decorate graves with ten dollar bills and not have them touched. But the world is full of depraved people, and we have to react to their depravity and try to thwart them.

If they catch these people, there should be a way to charge them with intention infliction of mental distress. And it should carry a stiff fine and a jail stay.

[Cyndi]

My infant daughters grave is at Rice cemetery and we have had many things stolen. From a babys grave! It's disturbing. Something has to be done.

[Elizabeth]

The nuns and my parents taught me that if you mess with someone's grave, that soul will come back and haunt you. I just can't believe how low and disrespectful that is. I sincerely hope the law catches these low-lifes. Personally, I'd like to have a "visit" with them myself!

[landscapers]

Sometimes it is also the landscapers that are mowing and weedeating around the graves that mess them up...by accident. A lot of the landscape workers also remove the flowers when they look old and discard them. It may be that sometimes when things get moved around its from the landscapers that maintain the lawn at the cemeteries.

but anyone that is vandalizing these graves will get what is coming to them...whether they get caught or not.

[Joddie]

I know that loved ones who have passed do not know that flowers are placed on their graves but the one who places them there obviously spent time and money for them and feels a connection to the person whose remains lay there.
Respect means a lot. However, when was a vandal or thief respectable?