Police in Florida arrested a woman on Wednesday after video surveillance appeared to capture her taking items family members had left beside graves inside a cemetery.
Katherine Taylor, 61, was charged with two counts of criminal mischief and damaging property, for removing mementos from graves at Etoniah Cemetery, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.
Family members had installed cameras near the gravesites after noticing items were disappearing from the graves of their loved ones.
Video shared by the sheriff’s office shows a woman, which police say is Taylor, with a wind chime in one hand while attempting to remove another from a graveside memorial.
Taylor was arrested and taken to the Putnam County Jail. She was released on a $5,000 bond.
Investigators said they found several other items which may have been taken from grave sites at Taylor’s home. She admitted to having been previously arrested for the same offense, police said.
Taylor’s alleged actions dumbfounded social media users. Almost 350,000 users have viewed the Facebook video shared by the sheriff’s office.
“That is about as low down as you can get. Glad you caught her,” one person wrote.
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“How could she even stand the sound of the chimes that she stole from deceased people, from people mourning their loved ones. This is totally disturbing,” another wrote.
A third said, “If she can afford a $5,000 bond, she should have bought her own windchimes instead of stealing.”
Others shared their own experiences with thieves at grave sites.
“We can’t ever put anything at my sisters grave always gets stolen.. so sad!!” one wrote.
“Me and my husband lost our first child in 1993 in December and for Christmas we got her a beautiful Christmas flower and wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it on her headstone and couple days later someone took it,” another shared.
