All over South Jersey, thieves are ripping off all sorts of metal.
In recent weeks a Gloucester County man who worked at Locustwood Memorial Park in Cherry Hill confessed to removing 200 brass fixtures from graves; a grand jury indicted a trio of women from Burlington and Camden counties in the theft of 380 grave markers from local cemeteries; and three Gloucester County men were charged in connection with metal-related burglaries in Greenwich Township.
In Haddonfield, police believe the disappearance of a six-foot aluminum menorah in a public park may have been the work of someone bent on selling the symbol for scrap. Copper rain gutters have been yanked from houses in the borough as well.
Meanwhile, in nearby Collingswood, a bronze plaque honoring hometown hero Michael Landon that was removed from a park during a borough cleanup was subsequently "rescued" from a borough public works facility, apparently by individual(s) concerned it might be deliberately, or inadvertently, scrapped.
And in Camden, ornamental and convential street light fixtures in several neighborhoods have been stripped of valuable metal parts.
Signs of the times?