Metal thieves desecrate hundreds of Colma graves COLMA

Metal thieves have stolen more than 525 bronze vases from graves in a Colma cemetery over the past month, police said Wednesday.

"It is terrible," said Ken Varner, president of Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, where thieves made off with the vases in two incidents in February. "It looks terrible and, more than anything, it is terrible for the families."

The solid bronze vases, roughly 11 inches tall and weighing about 8 pounds apiece, are attached to bronze plaques on flat-stone graves. They're designed to be removed or attached by family members with little difficulty, Varner said, but that also makes them easy pickings for grave robbers.

The first heist happened the night of Feb. 3, when 225 vases disappeared, said Colma police Cmdr. Jon Read. On Feb. 18, more than 300 vases were stolen from another part of the 200-acre cemetery.

All told, the vases were worth more than $85,000, Read said. Melted down - the vases' likely fate, if they were stolen for their metal - the bronze would garner about $4,000, he said.

"This is really the worst case of vandalism we've ever had," Varner said. He has modified security patrols at the cemetery, and police are also beefing up patrols, Read said.

The cemetery will replace the stolen vases at no cost to families and is considering welding them to the gravestones, Varner said. Roughly 10,000 of the 300,000 headstones at the cemetery have bronze vases.

"It is really sad that people would come out and desecrate a grave like this," Varner said, "but it is a sign of the economy."

Anyone with information is asked to call Colma police at (650) 997-8321.