BROCKTON - Carolyn Parker is shuddering at the thought of whether a thief, who broke into her car in Brockton and stole her mother's ashes, snorted or ingested the remains thinking they were drugs.



"It's disturbing. I hope they figured out what it was. The thought that somebody could have ingested that, it's mortifying," Parker, 48, said.



Her Jeep was unlocked when a thief went prowling the neighborhood on Bassett Road, rifling through multiple cars late Monday night. The road is a short side street off West Elm Street.



"They ransacked my car and nothing else was taken," Parker said. "Anything else in the world they could have had. I had expensive sunglasses in there. $20 in change. Take anything else. I have my mother's gold chain hanging from the rear-view mirror. They didn't take anything else."



Parker believes a drug addict stole the remains, which were in a plastic bag inside of a small white box in her glove compartment.



"It must have been somebody who thought they hit the mother load with drugs and just grabbed it. It was dark and maybe they couldn't see exactly what it was," she said. "They wouldn't have taken it if they knew what it was. I feel bad for them. There's a huge drug problem going on and clearly that person going through my car is desperate."



Her mother, Donna Potter, died in July at age 71. Parker had spread some of the ashes on Martha's Vineyard and was planning on leaving some at a few of her mother's other favorite places.



"I was going to have a necklace made with both my mother's and my son's ashes fused together but now I can't do that," she said tearing up.



Police told her there was not much they could do and suggested she check with her neighbors to see if they have surveillance cameras that might have caught the thief.



"I must have forgotten to lock my car that night," she said. "You get comfortable. This is our neighborhood. We've never had a problem here. I guess I just got too comfortable."



After searching up and down her street and others in the neighborhood, Parker said she is hoping the thief will do the right thing and bring the ashes back.



"I just want them back. There's no hate. Everybody has their own problems," she said. "Just please return them."

As of Thursday morning, Parker said she checked her front steps and around her house but did not see them.

"On a wing and a prayer here," she said Thursday morning.



A similar incident happened on West Park Street in August where a 69-year-old woman had her son's remains stolen from her apartment.



A person broke a window and ransacked her apartment, stealing jewelry and other items, including a box containing her only son's ashes. It was unclear if she ever got the remains back. An Enterprise reporter attempted to speak with the woman on Wednesday, but it appeared she moved out of her apartment.



