Thieves hit Carson cemetery, steal more than 100 bronze name plaques
By KCAL-News Staff
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CARSON, California (KCAL) — A Carson cemetery was struck by thieves over the weekend, and advocates say they took off with more than 100 name plaques adorning some final resting places.
Lincoln Memorial Park, which can be found on S. Central Ave, was hit on Friday, something that park owners feared would happen after Woodlawn Celestial Gardens, located just across the street, was targeted last week.
It’s the second such incident in just over a week’s time in the area, and the third in the Carson-Compton area, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators.
“The thought of someone even picking a cemetery to rob, any type of metal or gain, was utterly disgusting to me,” said Aisha Woods, a community advocate living in Carson.
Woods pointed out the missing name plaques throughout the cemetery, which were taken during an early morning burglary on Friday.
“It takes a lot of force to pry this off,” Woods said, displaying one plaque that was bent out of shape but not completely removed from the wall.
She also pointed out the now-missing face of a memorial for African American soldiers who were killed in World War II that was donated by boxer Joe Louis in 1944. Lincoln Memorial Park was one of the first integrated cemeteries in Los Angeles County, with some veterans dating back to the Civl War laid to rest on the grounds.
Similar to the first theft, it seems that the thieves are after anything bronze, which Woods believes they’re pawning off to resellers or recycling companies.
Woods is one of a group of volunteers who have taken over the groundskeeping at the cemetery after owners were forced to surrender their license last year. She said that she now knows everything that’s supposed to be there, noticing each missing plaque.
She also knows exactly what’s not supposed to be there as well, like the tools that the suspects left behind when they returned to the cemetery late Saturday, which she believes was their latest attempt to take a large bust of President Abraham Lincoln.
The suspects apparently used some type of fluid to remove patina from the bust to determine what sort of metal it’s made out of.
In the meantime, Woods says that families stopping by have instead placed pieces of tape on their loved ones’ graves to replace the now missing plaques.
“They are doing their best and they’re replacing it with tape, so they know, and everybody knows where they were,” she said.
LASD says that this is the third such incident to hit cemeteries in the Compton and Carson area, prompting them to assign an investigator to bring an end to the tactless crimes.
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