The Fort Calhoun Cemetery saw a slew of suspected thefts within the last week.
Greg Corns, detective with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, said on Feb. 23, a report of a missing veteran grave marker was filed to law enforcement.
"All the plaques were accounted for on the 14th of February," Corns said. "One family member reported it to the American Legion in Fort Calhoun, so they went out to the cemetery to see what was going on with that. They found out it was a much bigger scope than what they thought it was."
Following a check of the entire cemetery via volunteers, it was found that 80 of the 312 markers were missing from veterans' grave sites. There were also several markers from graves of American Legion Women's Auxiliary members.
The markers, as described by Larry Kusek, commander of the Fort Calhoun American Legion, are bronze and are about 6 inches in diameter. There are about 10 different types of these markers reported missing.
"They depict different wars, all the way from the Civil War up to the Middle East wars," Kusek explained. "We knew how many were there, and there's a map the Cemetery Board maintains, so we know exactly where each veteran is buried. It was pretty easy to do an inventory."
Corns said there have been similar thefts in the Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa, areas.
"I'm working with officers or detectives in those two areas," he said. "There may possibly be one suspect — they think there is more than one person that could be responsible."
Digital searches are also being done to try and track down the markers on websites such as Ebay.
"It's going to be hard to identify if one of those are the markers, but we're working on getting some photos of the actual markers that are gone and, hopefully, be able to identify some of them... and any suspects are apprehended because of this," Corns said.
As more and more of these thefts have occurred in the metro area as of late, Corns said he suspects people are taking these bronze markers in order to sell them.
"We've been hearing about them more and more often," he said.
Ed Lautrup, Veterans Service officer for Washington County, presented this issue to the County Board of Supervisors at its regular meeting Feb. 27, where the board gave him approval to move forward with purchasing new markers.
In the state of Nebraska, Lautrup explained that revised State Statute 80-107 states that county boards are responsible for providing grave markers to veterans in their county grave sites.
Lautrup told the County Board he will purchase some markers from the Lincoln County Veterans Services, and some from CenTec.
In lieu of the recent thefts, Kusek said he encourages families whose loved ones have the markers on their graves to take them if they feel they are unsafe.
"Another thing is we're going to talk to the Cemetery Board... and see about getting some kind of security up there, because right now, there's not much at all," he said. "Some cameras, maybe put gates on the two entrances to the cemetery and put up signs."
"Be vigilant and report suspicious stuff going on around the cemeteries," Lautrup added. "It's important to identify our vets and point their graves out for the service and the sacrifice they made for our country. Somebody has to be in a low spot in their life to go to a grave and steal stuff from a grave."
Lautrup and Kusek said they hope the new markers will arrive before Memorial Day.
