Caskets stolen from flood-damaged funeral home

The flood-damaged Brosh Chapel at 1028 Third St. SE has sat mostly empty since last summer.

But this week, three expensive caskets that remained in the funeral home were stolen by someone who knocked down the garage door.

“I was surprised, to say the least,” chapel Director Matt Linn said.

A police spokeswoman can't even remember the last time someone stole a casket.

“It's been a long time since we've had a funeral home that was burglarized,” Cedar Rapids Police Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said. “It wasn't the caskets that were taken (the last time), though. It was some of the items they used in various services.”

Linn thinks the caskets' copper material made them appealing to the thieves.

“Pure greed. Probably the economy, the need for scrap metal. Besides the caskets that were removed, we've had other items that were taken such as copper pipes,” he said.

The three copper caskets are worth about $3,000 each. They were damaged by floodwaters and were going to be sent back to the manufacturer.

Police say they've had problems with people stealing copper ever since the flood.

“During the winter months when copper was so high, we had a lot of homes ... flood-affected homes where people would go in and steal copper wiring,” Hamblin said.

The company doesn't expect to get the caskets back but hopes someone will call the authorities if they show up at a scrap metal dealer.

The chapel recently sold the building that was burglarized and is operating out of another funeral home while it builds a new location.