Widow upset items stolen from gravesite

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) - A Chesapeake widow wants a funeral home to help stop thieves from stealing grave site decorations.   

Denise Walton says flowers and other items have been stolen from her husband's grave 11 times in the last 17 months.

Walton lost her husband in 2011 in a sudden car crash. Every day, she visits his grave at Chesapeake Memorial Gardens. The fresh flower arrangements she brings to the site are made by hand, tightly secured to the urn and labeled with her husband's name.

But almost monthly, decorative items disappear. Last time it happened was on Valentine's Day.

"When I'm having that really horrible day and I just need to feel at peace, this is where I come," Walton said. "And when you walk up here, and it's not there, it's just heart wrenching. It makes you want to throw up."

Walton took her concerns to Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home, which owns the cemetery.

"They tell you there is nothing they can do, that it happens, they know it happens, and there is nothing they can do," said Walton. "So, what do you do?"

A funeral home worker told 10 On Your Side it is impossible to monitor every person who visits a grave. The worker said they don't have security cameras or reports of widespread theft.

The cemetery attributes missing items to spring cleaning and the elements.

"This urn, that urn, all 12 of these urns were empty!" said Walton. "No way was that the wind."

Chesapeake police found one report in their files. Walton says it was hers. She is determined to find whoever is stealing from her husband's resting place.

"He would make it his mission to do that, especially if it was me on the other side [of the grave]," she said.

The Holloman-Brown funeral home declined 10 On Your Side's request for an on camera interview.

Chesapeake police told WAVY.com they would contact the funeral home to discuss the thefts, now that it has been brought to their attention.