Grave undertaking for police after 17 coffins stolen from warehouse

Proving that thieves will steal just about anything, 17 coffins have been stolen from a warehouse in the Braybrook suburb of Melbourne, Australia. “This break-in is one out of the box,” Inspector Tony Long from the Maribyrnong local area command said.



“I’m deadly serious, this is a weird one.” In a statement posted on Wednesday to the command’s Facebook page, Long wrote that on 15 January two men broke into the warehouse and “helped themselves” to the coffins, loading them into a small truck. Neither the men, nor the coffins, had been seen since, he wrote.

“I’ve heard of some strange things being pinched in the past, but this one just about tops the list,” Long said. The coffins were excess stock being stored by a Melbourne funeral parlour. “If you happen to be at your local watering hole and someone sidles up to you with a, ‘Psst – do you want to buy a cheap coffin, fell off the back of a truck,’ give Crime Stoppers a call,” he said.



The coffins were worth $2,000 each, Long said, and he suspected the men would try to sell them “or make fish tanks out of them”. The parlour owner had been overseas and did not report the theft until this week. “They’re not too happy of course, but being in the line of business they are they would have to look on the brighter side of life.”