HAZLE TOWNSHIP -- State police in Luzerne County say thieves made off with more than two dozen bronze vases that were placed at a cemetery near Hazleton.
Investigators say those vases are valued at more than 200 dollars each.
“Whoever stole them has a use for them but it has to probably do with money, anybody that's a thief doesn't have a business going,” said Frank Kovacs.
Since 1995 Kovacs has been the general manager of the Mount Laurel Memorial Park Cemetery just outside Hazleton.
When he was at the cemetery in Hazle Township earlier in the day, he noticed something was wrong.
“We were out cleaning up today and that's when we noticed a lot of vases missing, quite a few,” said Kovacs.
Kovacs says 25 bronze vases that had been placed at grave markers inside the cemetery were gone.
He says he noticed some missing vases earlier in the month, but this time he called state police.
“So I knew that someone had come back, more than before because I did look around about I saw the first four missing about two weeks ago and this time we saw a whole lot more,” said Kovacs.
Kovacs says the vases are valued at about $225 each.
He wants to get the word out about the theft because he believes whoever took the vases will try to sell them.
“Who's going to have a dozen or two dozen vases to do something with?” asked Kovacs. “And who's going to, if they have the capability of melting them down, who's going to have a couple hundred pounds of bronze also?”
“It's stuff that you have to melt down, it's not something that any junkyard going to take,” said Richard Welch who lives and works right next to the cemetery.
He and his wife Gina Carlson keep an eye on the cemetery when Kovacs isn't there.
“The people who are doing it have to be doing it late at night because they're not doing it during the day because we would see them,” said Welch.
“Whoever steals them is not going to get very far with them unless they melt them down themselves and who has the capability of doing that I don't know,” said Carlson.
If you have any information on the stolen vases you`re asked to call state police at Hazleton at (570) 459-3890.