Police Arrest Two Men for Stealing Grave Railings at Vladivostok Cemetery

VLADIVOSTOK. November 8. VOSTOK-MEDIA – The police has arrested two young men after they stole cast-iron railings from 23 graves at a Vladivostok cemetery.

Primorye Investigative Committee spokeswoman Tatyana Pogorelova said that in July 2010, police arrested two men, aged 25 and 26, when they attempted to steal yet another railing.

The investigators found out that since the early spring of 2010, the two men, both unemployed, managed to steal railings from 23 graves. They used to drive up to the cemetery, choose a grave with cast iron railings, pull out the railings, break them to pieces and sell to a scrap-yard. All in all, the vandals caused damage estimated at 1 million rubles ($32,500).

The police denounced the unwillingness of scrap-yard workers to report the thieves as outrageous.

One of the men, who had already received a 2.5-year suspended sentence in November 2009 for theft, was put in jail; the other man was ordered not to leave the city pending further investigation.

“What concerns me a lot is that the men did not care about the moral aspect of the crimes committed,” said investigator Oksana Korol. “They put the pursuit of easy money above everything. They received about 500 rubles ($16) for a railing in the scrap-yard while inflicting dead persons’ relatives damage of 30,000 to 120,000 rubles ($3,900). They should be deeply ashamed of what they have done,” she said.