Stolen cemetery plaques uncovered by Calgarian

Calgary thieves have moved from stealing catalytic converters for their metal content to bronze plaques from a city cemetery.

Calgary police say it happened sometime between Aug. 18 and 23 at Queen’s Park Cemetery.

But the stolen memorial plaques have now been found.

Brian Kozera says the stolen plaques have been found dumped near his property, not far from the cemetery.

“It looks like all of them plus some large plaques. But the very odd thing is that every single name has been ground off of the plaque. Every single one of them,” said Kozera.

The thieves took 300 bronze plaques that commemorated deceased loved ones, as well as several bronze flower vases.

Related Article: Hundreds of plaques stolen from Calgary cemetery

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Kozera says that sadly the plaques have all been defaced.

“Probably almost impossible the message is still on the bottom of the plaque. But the name has been ground off of every one of them,” said Kozera.

Investigators say the plaques and vases were likely stolen to sell the bronze within them because of the rising cost of metal.

The price of bronze is currently $2.70 a pound.

Staff Sgt. Colin Chisholm says there are no words to describe how disrespectful people can steal from a loved one’s memorial plaque for pennies on a dollar.

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Related Article: Calgarians face escalating catalytic converter thefts

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“All kinds of metals have shot up in price over the years. They tried to take these things to metal recyclers to get not even pennies on the dollar for what they’re actually worth. These things you know are not the value of the metal itself. And of course, it’s the intangible value that is really that we’re missing these,” said Kozera.

Police say cemetery staff was told about the missing plaques by family members that were visiting the graves.

CityNews has reached out to Calgary police but they have yet to respond on the recovered plaques.

–With files from Dan Carson, Joey Chini, and Adeline Gladu