Duke

Vandalism and theft from a grave in Devon. On Fathers Day we took our grandchildren to lay flowers on their Daddy's grave where his ashes were interred 11 months ago. It's a lovely cemetery in a small Devon town, just a couple of miles from their home. The children are aged 13 and 8. Upon arriving we were met with the scene below. The slab over his grave had been removed. The flowers and childrens ornaments had been taken off, the slab stolen and the flowers etc were put back haphazardly on the bare ground. And it was just left in this state. I quickly discovered that a nearby grave had recently had a memorial stone set on top of it. On closer examination it was clear the slab upon which the memorial was placed was the one that had been on our sons grave. It belongs to us. It had been stolen and used on someone elses grave, (I've blurred out the details). But who would have committed this crime, (well actually it's at least 2 crimes and possibly 3)? This morning I visited the stonemason company who carved the stone and mounted it on the (stolen) slab. They admitted they had taken it. They said they believed they had the right to randomly raid other people's graves if the grave they were installing a memorial on didn't have a slab upon which to place it. They actually said this. They claimed the parish council had told them it was acceptable. The clerk at the Parish council has confirmed that she would NEVER allow anyone to interfere with graves at their cemetery. She, like us, is absolutely disgusted, enraged and upset that this has happened. I spoke to a Director of the company involved today. They told me it wasn't classed as "nicking" because they would have returned it. THEY CEMENTED A MEMORIAL TO IT ON THURSDAY OF LAST WEEK. The Director has asked me to "work with him" to resolve the situation. 1. They interfered with a grave. 2. They stole a fundamental element of the structure of the grave. 3. They placed it on someone elses grave. 4. They attached a memorial to it. 5. They walked away leaving my Sons grave looking looking like THAT. There is a Police incident number. I'm awaiting a response from Devon and Cornwall Police. In the meantime it's a crime scene. The company have said they'll try to separate the slab and the memorial in order to return our property. But it may not be possible. That's not good enough. What do you think.