[StBernard] Two more caught in St. Bernard cemetery thefts

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu Apr 17 00:35:18 EDT 2008


Two more caught in St. Bernard cemetery thefts

01:43 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

wwltv.com

Two more Chalmette men have been booked with possession of stolen property
and one of them with theft in connection with the taking of hundreds of
brass flower vases from a Chalmette cemetery in March and April, with at
least 50 sold to a New Orleans scrap metals dealer, Sheriff Jack Stephens
said.


A total of four men have been arrested in the investigation of thefts from
St. Bernard Memorial Gardens Cemetery. The Sheriff's Office, Louisiana State
Police and now New Orleans Police have been involved in a joint
investigation which crossed jurisdictional lines when stolen vases were sold
in New Orleans, the sheriff said.


Authorities have recovered 148 stolen brass vases which sold at retail for
$600 each. The vases weigh about eight pounds and typically have on them the
last name of the deceased.


Patrick Centorbi, 22, and Brian Boudreaux, 22, both of Chalmette, were
booked Tuesday night by State Police South District detectives on a warrant
alleging possession of stolen property from the cemetery. They allegedly
sold stolen vases to Poland Scrap Metal Works in New Orleans, the sheriff
said. Fifty vases were recovered at the dealership on April 9. No one from
the business has been arrested.


St. Bernard sheriff's detectives later booked Centorbi with theft and
desecration of graves for allegedly stealing vases from the Chalmette
cemetery.


Centorbi and Boudreau allegedly both sold vases taken from the cemetery
according to records at the scrap metals business, Stephens said. However,
the men may have been acting separately, he said. There is no indication the
two know each other or that they are associates of the men arrested April 5
in connection with the theft of 98 vases from the cemetery.


It's possible, authorities said, that the thefts are unrelated. The
investigation is continuing, the sheriff said. Vases recovered at the scrap
metals business were sold both before and after the arrests of the first two
men on April 5, Stephens said.


The cemetery reported April 2 it was missing 125 of the vases from
gravesites in the mausoleum and cemetery, then 98 more were stolen April 5
and recovered that day in a pickup truck at a Chalmette residence near the
cemetery, Stephens said.


Of the two arrested April 5, Val Terry, 41, remains jailed, booked with
desecration of graves and theft; and the other man, Joseph Scorsone, 42,
booked with possession of stolen things, has been released on bond of more
than $100,000.


Stephens, at the time of the first arrests,, said the case "makes you wonder
how low people can sink.''


"Think about it,'' Sheriff Stephens said. "Someone goes into a graveyard to
steal items'' placed there to honor the dead. The sheriff added, "It shows
the worst side of human nature.''


The sheriff praised the work of an alert cemetery employee who called the
Sheriff's Office after seeing a pickup truck leaving the grounds on April 5
and locating the truck himself in a nearby driveway.


Stephens encouraged anyone to call the Sheriff's Office at 271-2501 if they
see something suspicious happening.




More information about the StBernard mailing list