How Low Do You Need Be To Steal American Flags From a Cemetary?

[Old Moparz]

Apparently only about 8 inches.   

My wife sent me this link to a story & video of missing American flags that a groundhog was caught stealing to bring back to his home. At least it wasn't drunk vandals.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/groundhogs-stealing-flags-cedar-park-cemetary_n_1662544.html

Sounds like a job for Bill Murray.   

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For the last two years, American flags set on the graves of Civil War soldiers at Cedar Park Cemetery in honor of Independence Day have been mysteriously disappearing. Last year, many of the flags were on the graves of Jewish soldiers and, this year, the missing flags were set on the graves of black soldiers, according to HudsonValley.YNN.com, which angered cemetery caretaker Vincent Wallace.

"I just can't comprehend the mindset that would allow someone to do this," said Wallace, who served in the U.S. Army National Guard for 43 years, to the website.

But after the third incident in a week, law officers set up surveillance cameras in hopes of flagging down the flag-napping culprits. Turns out it's not a person at all, but a groundhog, according to WRGB-TV.

"When the police responded and opened up the surveillance cameras, we were startled to find that a woodchuck was sitting there at the base of the gravestone with an empty flag pole in front of him," Wallace told the station.

Hudson Mayor Bill Hallenbeck was happy to discover that the culprits weren't human. "I'm glad we don't have someone who has taken it upon themselves to desecrate the stones and the flags in front of them," he told the Register Star newspaper.

Apparently, the flags had wooden poles that attracted the groundhogs which are also known as woodchucks, and the city will take steps to have flags with non-wooden stems be placed on graves in the future. Groundhog expert Bob Will, who for decades has adopted sick, injured and unwanted groundhogs and who advocates on behalf of the oft-maligned rodent, hopes that the animals don't get destroyed because of their actions and are instead relocated.

"They really are an animal that doesn't do anything bad, and they shouldn't be destroyed just for the lark of it," Will told the Los Angeles Times.

[ITSA426]

Could it be some underground patriot group?

[4cruzin]

That's pretty funny!   lol

[Fred]

Could it be some underground patriot group?

[mauve66]

you would think the cemetary would do the investigating instead of real cops who could be looking for larger criminals though

[Ghoste]

But the cemetary taxes pay for police same as yours or mine, are they not entitled to the same service?

[JB400]

Let's compromise .......Joint investigation








                                                                           Not that kind

[Old Moparz]

Some people get pretty upset over desecration of a grave, so I don't blame anyone for taking it that seriously. The police treated it as vandalism & theft, they had no idea it was a big rodent.   

[mauve66]

served my time and i'm as patriotic as anyone but i want the cops to investigate serious crimes.  yes i do consider this serious but if someone was stealing the flag from in front of my house i would set up cameras and get some documentation for them to persue before i would think about wasting the cops time just to monitor the cameras and try to arrive on the scene to catch them in the act.  around here they won't even take fingerprints after someone breaks into your car to try to catch them so why spend resources on an 8 inch flag before you figure out what is going on

[Ghoste]

I fully understand what you are saying but can you imagine the outcry if the cemetary or the relatives who placed the flags had asked the police to investigate and they responded with something like "sorry but its an 8 inch flag in a cemetary, you monitor it and get some proof first for us to pursue and in the meantime we are going to spend our time watching out for more serious crimes"?

[mauve66]

i wouldn't ask the police, you pay for the cemetary to secure its property first
just saying, their are pedophiles and serial killers out there i would rather use the cops to catch first, the security guard for the cemetary can figure this out

[Old Moparz]

But what if that had been a Jewish cemetery & it was discovered that the ground hog had ties to some local neo-nazi group & the cops didn't investigate? The media would have crucified the police dept. 

[ACUDANUT]

It's pretty low to do that. However, the dead don't seem to care.

[Old Moparz]

It's pretty low to do that. However, the dead don't seem to care.

You have to be low to be a ground hog or you get stuck in the hole.