MORE THAN 100 VASE RINGS STOLEN FROM EUREKA CEMETERY

 
A thief has made off with more than one hundred brass rings that were attached to flower vases at ocean view cemetery in eureka, and with dozens of families affected by the theft, the cemetery is asking for the public to keep a watchful eye on the property...News Channel 3's Cameron Cramer has more:
 
Flowers of all kinds usually line the ocean view cemetery, whether they're on the ground or in vases, but no flowers reside on these bare walls, after cemetery Administrator Don McCombs discovered more than 100 of the rings affixing the vases to the wall were stolen-
"First reaction was anger, it's bad enough they acted at the cemetery, but there are so many families this affects, so many people have come in since this time frame to place flowers and unfortunately i don't have enough vase rings to replace them." Said McCombs
The thefts occurred on two days, a small number were taken on June 8th, but nearly one hundred were stolen from this wall the following night.
"At this point because of the amount of work he did for the small reward we think it's malicious vandalism...this is just somebody being mean." Said McCombs
The four-ounce brass rings wouldn't fetch much at a scrap heap, and wouldn't be easy to disassemble leading McCombs to believe the theft wasn't monetarily motivated
"These were screwed on, so he had to unscrew them, and because of the age of a lot of these, those are pretty solidly corroded into the holders, so it's a lot of work to get them out." Said McCombs
The stolen rings will be replaced, but the process of ordering, shipping and mounting them could take months...for now, the cemetery is asking for the public to keep an eye out and aid the police in finding the culprit.
"If the public does see anything out here happening at the cemetery, please call the police department, if you're uncomfortable calling the police department, the phone number at the cemerary-445-3188, does have an answering service at all times, they’ll ring through and we'll call for you if you are uncomfortable calling the police department." Said McCombs