Cemetery vases stolen; help sought

The Vancouver Police Department is asking the public’s help finding thieves who stole 57 bronze vases from Evergreen Memorial Gardens and Cemetery.

“We’re the victim of 57 graves that have been desecrated, (as are) the thousands of loved ones who have been affected by that,” said Brad Carlson, the cemetery’s president and general manager.

The stolen vases are worth about $20,000, Carlson said. In total, Evergreen presides over 40 acres and approximately 36,000 burial sites. The business is off Northeast 112th Avenue and Northeast Eighth Street.

The thefts were believed to have occurred between Oct. 14 and Nov. 3, when the cemetery’s grounds crew discovered the vases were missing. The bronze vases sit atop grave markers and are often used to adorn a site with flowers.

“Even though it’s only 57, which represents a very small, miniscule percentage, it still causes alarm,” said Carlson, who added the cemetery’s phones have been ringing “off the hook” with people concerned about the grave sites.

“These scoundrels who are so selfish and inconsiderate that they want to desecrate dead people’s graves. … I don’t know how they can sleep at night. That’s about as low as you can get, in my opinion.”

Kim Kapp, a police spokeswoman, called an investigation into the stolen vases “active.”

Both Kapp and Carlson said they’d heard an arrest was made in Portland in connection with the sale of metals to a recycling center. A Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman, though, could not confirm whether anyone has been taken into custody in association with the bronze monuments.

Carlson said he’s been passed from “one officer to the next” in Portland.

In general, he said, callers to the cemetery have been supportive.

“I don’t think they expect us to have total control of 40 acres of developed cemetery property every minute of every day,” he said.

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call Vancouver police at 360-487-7399.