Grave vandals cause heartache

The thieves won't stop me from doing what I promised my father.Waaka Peacock
A recent spate of desecrations of graves at Aramoho Cemetery has prompted the Wanganui District Council to review  security there.
Mayor Michael Laws has asked for people who have had their loved one's gravestone stolen or vandalised to contact him.
Mr Laws put the call out this week after being approached by a member of the public, Waaka Peacock, who had an item stolen from his father's grave at the  cemetery.
Mr Peacock told the Wanganui Chronicle his father Jimmy died in 2001.  He had promised Jimmy that every year on his birthday - October 31 - he would visit him and leave a bottle of DB Draught on his grave.
Even since then, Mr Peacock and his family have honoured his father by visiting  the grave on October 31, having a fish and chips picnic, and leaving a fresh bottle of beer. 
"That's what dad and I used to do together - have fish'n' chips and drink a couple of big bottles of beer."
Mr Peacock said the bottles  had always remained at Jimmy's grave - until last year.
When he went to his father's grave at Christmas, the bottle was gone.
"I don't understand, out of all the things in the world, that people would want to steal from what I consider to be a sacred place."
This incident follows two others at the Aramoho cemetery reported recently by the Wanganui Chronicle - that of a Wanganui family who had vases stolen from their daughter's grave, and a Levin woman who had vases stolen from her parents' grave.
In August, an attempt was made to set alight the grave of murdered Wanganui woman Tania McKenzie.
Mr Laws said he wanted to know "how much of an issue this is".
"I want to know whether the thefts have become more common or whether this is just isolated low-life behaviour."
Mr Laws said he suspected young vandals. He said the council would consider increasing security patrols as a temporary measure.
"If we could get a response from members of the public if they have been so affected, and when these thefts occurred, then we would be better informed on the kind of security we may need."
Aramoho Cemetery sexton Gary Gleeson said he had received reports of several thefts from graves over the past few weeks. He said one grave had had a bronze cross prised off it.
"We also had an alloy stormwater plate sitting on a drain and that has gone missing."
Mr Gleeson said cemetery staff cleaned up items off graves that  had been broken, for example, being knocked over by the wind and smashed. But he stressed that whole items were never removed by staff.
Mr Gleeson said  the cemetery had always had a low-level vandalism and theft problem, and that it was no worse now than it had ever been.
He said the cemetery "didn't do too badly" compared to cemeteries in large cities, such as Auckland.
As for Mr Peacock, he said the theft would not stop him from carrying out his promise.
"It annoys me. But I will still go and do what I have done every year. The thieves won't stop me from doing what I promised my father."