A cemetery was vandalized the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, where thieves allegedly stole more than 100 bronze name plaques at Lincoln Memorial Park in the city of Carson, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
Of those stolen, one memorial was donated by boxer Joe Louis in 1944 in memory of African American soldiers killed in World War II, a resident who volunteers by groundskeeping for the cemetery told television station KCAL9.
“The thought of someone even picking a cemetery to rob ... was utterly disgusting to me,” Aisha Woods told the news station.
She said the missing name plaques were taken during the early morning hours on Jan. 12, the Friday before the Monday holiday, and “it takes a lot of force to pry this off,” referring to one plaque that was halfway removed and bent out of shape.
Lincoln Memorial Park is one of Los Angeles County’s first integrated cemeteries, with veterans dating as far back as the Civil War reportedly buried there.
Last summer, the cemetery’s owner abandoned it, and because it’s privately owned, neither the state nor county could step in and take over, according to media reports at the time.
Ms. Woods told the TV station suspects left behind tools Jan. 13 after attempting to steal a large bust of President Abraham Lincoln.
Thieves similarly robbed a Compton cemetery Jan. 4 stealing bronze grave markers, according to the sheriff’s department. Suspects, in that case, are still at large.
According to local media reports, multiple plaques were also stolen from that location, called Woodlaw Celestial Gardens, with cemetery owner Celestina Bishop telling KCAL9 she believes the thieves cut through a fence on the property before they started smashing grave markers, in search of bronze from the tombstones to sell.
According to Ms. Bishop more than 900 veterans as far back as the War of 1812 to Operation Desert Storm are buried at cemetery, in addition to early settlers of the city.
