Transient held in thefts from graves

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

A transient ex-felon has been arrested in connection with the theft of bronze vases from grave sites at downtown Las Vegas cemeteries, Metro Police said.

Ronald Williams, 48, who has no fixed address, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of felony possession of stolen property. He was arrested Saturday by Metro patrol officers who found him sleeping in a vacant house. If convicted, Williams faces one to three years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Police described Williams as a registered felon who had listed the area around Main Street and Owens Avenue as his residence.

Police recovered 52 bronze vases that were taken from graves at Eden Vale Cemetery, 1216 Las Vegas Blvd. North; and Woodlawn Cemetery, 1500 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

"The first reports of missing vases from cemeteries started coming in around mid-October," Metro property crimes Det. Ruben Hood said. "They were not just vases sitting loosely in front of headstones; they were either soldered on or somehow bolted down. You had to work to pry them off."

Last week, a worker at Lakewood Recycling, 1609 Stocker Street in North Las Vegas, bought the vases, which weighed a total of 258 pounds, as bulk bronze for $79.

"The employee operating the scale was a little new and had no idea what they were," said Su Phelps, owner of the 17-year-old company. "But one of my experienced employees later saw (the vases) and said these came from a cemetery; we have to call the police."

Hood said Lakewood officials were cooperative with the investigation and that the vases have been returned to the cemeteries. Hood said it was not necessary for Metro to hold the vases in the evidence vault because authorities have the sales receipts and eyewitnesses. Recycling company workers picked the suspect out of a lineup, Hood said.

"Our business is a community service and our job is to be a community asset," Phelps said. "We don't want that kind of business."

Phelps said over the years, vagrants and others have tried to sell a number of unusual items to the recycling business -- many of them immediately recognizable as stolen.

"They used to come in with aluminum guardrails from highways, but the state got smart," she said. "They started installing aluminum-painted iron guardrails that were too heavy to carry away, much stronger (to withstand impact of automobiles) and have no value (as scrap metal)."

Hood said police are investigating additional bronze vase thefts from cemetery headstones. Anyone with information can call Secret Witness at 385-5555 or the Metro Property Crimes Unit at 229-3573.