Whistling While You Work May Not Pay Off
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PARIS — Guards at Pere Lachaise cemetery were surprised to hear the sound of music and hammering coming from a sepulcher at night, they said in court Wednesday.
Inside, they said, they found brothers Patrice and Alain Coppet pulling up the flagstone over the burial vault. They had a lamp and booze and a radio to keep their spirits up.
The brothers, aged 24 and 25, were in search of gold teeth and jewelry, the court was told. Sales from their previous grave robberies netted $330, they admitted.
Patrice, who, like Alain, was unemployed after losing his job as a nightwatchman, told the court: “Stealing from a dead person is not as bad as stealing from the living. The dead suffer less.”
The brothers were each jailed for 18 months.
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