Oct. 31--Two men are in custody after they were caught this morning with 89 metal funeral urns and a metal funeral plaque worth thousands of dollars which they apparently were going to sell to a metal recycler for cash, police said this morning.
The men were arrested about 8 a.m. on the 10100 block of South Ewing Avenue after police received a call about a burglary in progress in a three-floor apartment in the neighborhood, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. Charges are pending, he said.
When officers from a burglary response unit arrived on the scene, they spotted the men loading items into blue plastic bags which they were loading onto a SUV behind the three-flat, Mirabelli said.
When police arrived and began looking in the bags, they found that the men had 89 funeral urns and a metal plaque which had already been inscribed, Mirabelli said. The urns are copper or brass, he said.
The plaque -- which also was copper or brass -- had been defaced to obscure the information which listed the person's name, age and other information, Mirabelli said.
Police estimate that the urns sell for between $100 and $500 apiece, putting the value of the heist at between $8,900 and $44,500, Mirabelli said.
Police are trying to determine where the urns and the plaque were stolen from.
Officials say that thieves have been stealing copper and other metals because metal prices have spiked.
Copyright 2011 - Chicago Tribune
