Thievery at the Cemetery?

About four hours ago I took a ride to Our Lady Help of Christians Cemetery in Glenmont to check how my ancestor's graves held up over the Winter and to note whether I had any upcoming projects to attend to there. While at the cemetery I took a look at a grave site where there was an old cast iron bench at an unrelated grave site. Years ago this cemetery had quite a few of these benches within it. I remember seeing them as a kid when I visited the cemetery with my grandparents.

As of March of 2013 there was only one remaining bench left in the cemetery. All of them had disappeared one way or another. Today I checked for the bench because numerous times in the past when my kids were at the cemetery with me, we would photograph them sitting on the bench. The last time I did this was in 2013 and I will no longer be able to do the same in the future because today it is missing, gone, not there.  Below is the first picture we took of my kids at the bench. It was taken in 2003.

Summer 2003

Summer2008

The next photo below was taken in March 2012. In order to keep the peace within the family and not start WWIII with the girls; their faces have been whited out. "Are you happy girls?" The bench can clearly be seen between two grave stones.

March 2012

The photo below is of the same spot taken today. The cast iron bench is gone. In the top photo, the bench was wired together. Obviously it was damaged at some point. The question here is: did the cemetery workers remove the bench because of the damage or was it removed by thieves?

30 March 2015

It is very aggravating that this happens and I am sure that it happens all the time. Another item that is no longer found here are the old GAR medallions that hold flags. This cemetery had numerous ones again when I was a youngster. I hope that these small relics from the past are not disappearing for ease of up keeping of the grounds. This will be looked into further.