Guard Foils Casket Thieves

For the second time in a year, a casket was disturbed in a mausoleum at Westminster Memorial Park.

Thieves were attempting Monday night to steal the coffin, containing the remains of a female who died at age 100 in 1994, when they were frightened off by a cemetery security guard, police said.

The incident is similar to a theft in November when a casket was stolen from the mausoleum and the remains of an 85-year-old woman were taken. Those remains, which were interred in 1991, were never recovered. Her identity was withheld at the family’s request.

The cemetery increased security following the November incident, and that likely prevented the theft this week, police said.