PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Police say a flower shop owner stole plants and other items from graves at a New Jersey cemetery for months.
Capt. Christopher DePuyt says police installed surveillance cameras at the First Reformed Church Cemetery in Pequannock Township after two plants disappeared from the mausoleum and replacement plants were stolen two days later.
He says the cameras caught a woman in a minivan taking the plants and Riverdale officers recognized her as a former police dispatcher and current flower shop owner.
Authorities charged 59-year-old Lynda Wingate, of Riverdale, with the disorderly person's offense of theft of moveable property.
DePuyt says Wingate claimed she was cleaning up old flowers from graves of people she knew, but he says that isn't the case.
A message seeking comment was left at her flower shop.
AetherThought on May 1st, 2017 at 20:04 UTC »
In Hong Kong, it's usual that people will snap the stems in half before putting flowers at the grave to prevent this exact scenario.
lendergle on May 1st, 2017 at 17:02 UTC »
This has been going on since people have been putting flowers (and other mementos) on grave sites. I remember reading about NY arresting a whole bunch of roadside florists who parked their vans just outside cemetery gates, sold flowers, and then retrieved them as soon as the grieving family members left. To the people who do this, the occasional arrest and fine is just part of the cost of doing business.
There used to be a kind of flower holder that shredded the stems as you pulled out the arrangement. People started using them around the same time, but the "recyclers" got mad and would just yank the flowers out and throw them around for no other reason than pure spite.
But just because it's been going on forever doesn't mean it's OK. Those people are assholes.
a-gay-canadian on May 1st, 2017 at 15:59 UTC »
Serious question.
Who do the flowers legally belong to at that point? The person who put them there, the cemetery owner or the corpse?