TOP STORY: Headstones at city cemetery smashed

Vandals have smashed headstones, done burnouts on grass, dumped litter and stolen mementos belonging to grieving people like Lynette Dwane in attacks on Bay cemeteries.
Mrs Dwane is heartbroken thieves have desecrated her son's burial plot. She is just one of a growing number of Bay mourners who have become victims of "sicko" vandals.
Seven graves at a central Tauranga cemetery were smashed off their footing and garden lights have been stolen, burnt-out cars dumped and litter strewn about at other Bay graveyards.
Mrs Dwane, of Mount Maunganui, says her daughter Sonya discovered last weekend that thieves had stolen a precious figurine Mrs Dwane had sitting protectively at her son Aaron's grave at Pyes Pa Cemetery since 2004.
She still remembers the day Aaron and Sonya gave her the little grey concrete dog. "Aaron said 'why don't you paint it black with red eyes mum?' That's the sort of sense of humour he had."
Mrs Dwane did paint the dog black and when her son died suddenly on September 15, 2004, aged 30, she left the corgi-shaped figure sitting beside his headstone.
"I don't drive, so I don't get up to the cemetery that much.
"Having that little guy sitting there was like having part of me sitting there," she told the Bay of Plenty Times. Mrs Dwane says she was crushed last weekend when her daughter and ex-husband visited Aaron's grave and discovered the dog missing.
"I cannot believe the actions of the person who removed it from the graveside of my son. To go to the cemetery and pinch things is bad enough but this little dog holds no value for them. It only has sentimental value for Aaron and me," she said.
"I'd like to say to the sicko 'put the dog back where he belongs'."
Mrs Dwane also had artificial and fresh flowers and a small pot plant at Aaron's grave. None was touched.
"I'm totally blown away anyone would take anything like that from there. It has been put on a gravestone for a reason. It doesn't matter what sort of clutzy thing it was. It was put their for a reason," she said.
Peace and tranquillity at several Bay cemeteries has been shattered in recent months with reports not only of vandalism but also of people sleeping in cars on cemetery grounds.
In the past fortnight, headstones on seven graves at Tauranga's historic Catholic Cemetery, on the corner of Fraser St and 18th Ave, had been smashed off their footing.
It was the first headstone attack Tauranga City Council property assets manager Michael Hewerdine had seen since he began his role at the start of 2005.
Seven other headstones were felled at the weekend after a freak wind gust broke a branch, which landed on them.
Mr Hewerdine said that at Pyes Pa Cemetery, which is chained from dusk until dawn, cars had been dumped in the layby and burnt, solar lights had been stolen and fast food left-overs had been strewn around the grounds, presumably thrown from car windows.
The council has put up a sign banning dogs and alcohol. Overgrown shrubs have since been trimmed for visibility.
Te Puke police acting Senior Sergeant Deidre Lack said that in the past month hoons had been doing burnouts in Te Puke's Dudley Vercoe Cemetery, causing extensive damage to a grassed area that currently is not cordoned off at night. Thieves had also stolen garden lights.
She said police had stepped up patrols and anyone caught could be charged with criminal damage and theft.
She said police were talking to Western Bay of Plenty District Council about putting a chain or fence up to keep cars out of the cemetery at night.
"It's terrible to go up to a place like that and do something like that." Ms Lack said.
Western Bay council communications manager Peter Hennessey said the council had received complaints from the public and council staff were preparing a report for the Te Puke Community Board outlining options for security and the installation of gates.
He said the vandalism was a "new issue" to council. Tauranga police tactical response manager, Inspector Karl Wright-St Clair, agreed vandalism in cemeteries was of concern.
"We usually have a rise in wilful damage and vandalism during school holidays, that has probably cumulated in what's been seen in the last couple of weeks."