SICK robbers are targeting cemeteries and stealing personal mementos from graves, the Evening Times can reveal.

 

Heartless grave robbers have stolen ornaments in a cruel money making scheme.

In recent weeks, Cambusnethan Cemetery, in Wishaw, has been targeted by sick raiders who have interfered with graves.

It is understood the culprits may be selling on the stolen items.

At one burial plot, figures of angels and vases, which had been placed on the grave by grieving families, were stolen.

Cops were called in after the thefts were reported and an investigation has been launched.

A police source told the Evening Times: "Stealing from graves really is the lowest of the low.

"These items might only be worth money to the thieves, but to families of the deceased, they are treasured mementoes.

"It is possible the thieves are selling on the stolen items or, if they are made a metal, selling them on to scrap yards."

It is understood relatives, who were visiting a grave, raised the alarm about the thefts.

In a statement, police said: "Angels and vases were stolen from a grave in Cambusnethan Cemetery between May 4 and May 20.

"Do you know anything? Call 101."

Earlier this year, the Evening Times told how a woman was arrested after a spate of alleged thefts at a cemetery.

Police held the 36-year-old in connection with the graveside thefts in Ayrshire.

The incidents were alleged to have taken place at a cemetery in Kirkland Road, Kilbirnie.

Insiders stressed there is no connection to the most recent thefts in Lanarkshire.

We previously told how grave robbers were stealing the names of the dead from headstones in a cemetery.

Cathcart Cemetery was repeatedly targeted by vandals, who stole brass and copper plates from graves.

One of the graves targeted was that of a 29-year-old soldier from the 15 Scottish Rifles who was buried just a month after the First World War ended in 1918.

Another grave belonged to an infant.

Anyone with information about the Wishaw thefts is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101.