A Hamilton woman who lost her son in Afghanistan is devastated tonight after someone stole the Canadian flag from her front porch this weekend. To Bev McCraw the flag has a very special meaning.

Bev McCraw’s son, Sergeant Shawn Eades, was killed in Afghanistan in 2008. His coffin was draped in a Canadian flag. To Bev the flag is a symbol of what he gave his life for: “He served for 15 years under that flag and he died for it. He left behind a wife and three little girls.”

The flag had flown on the front porch of her home near Mohawk College for 12 years. But when she went outside to check the weather on Sunday morning, the flag was gone: “It had been there the night before and now it was gone. That flag meant the world to him, defending our country meant the world to him.”

Bev spent hours on Sunday morning scouring the neighbourhood looking for her beloved flag but to no avail. She says there are a lot of students living in this neighbourhood and they may have been partying on Saturday night and stole the flag.

Bev McCraw: “Fun is fun but to steal somebody’s flag and something that is a symbol of honour and pride for Canada is just sacrilegious.”

And she worries that the sacrifices our soldiers make are being forgotten: “They need to start looking in to what this country has given them and what they’ve got because of the men and women who fought for it over the years.”

All Bev wants is the flag back. She won’t press charges and hasn’t called police. She just wants the flag back, no questions asked. Bev says a neighbour offered to buy her another one but it’s the principal of it for her. If you have the flag please drop it off.