Mullica Township Police arrested Wednesday two Atlantic County residents who they say stole at least 200 metal pipes and railings and marble statues and columns from cemeteries in Pleasantville, Galloway Township and Mullica Township.
Jonathan
Ferris, 40, of Galloway Township, and his cousin, Blair Drinkhouse, 27,
of Egg Harbor Township, were arrested by Mullica Township detectives
Antonio Lupinetti and Ryan Spencer, said Mullica Township Police Capt.
Brian Zeck
Ferris and
Drinkhouse are each facing charges of theft by unlawful taking,
trespassing, desecration of venerated objects, conspiracy to commit
theft and criminal mischief, Zeck said.
The police are still working on the total of cemetery plots and victims that have been affected, Zeck said.
There
were more than 40 victims in Mullica Township alone, but an unknown
number of victims in Pleasantville and Galloway Township, he said. Egg
Harbor City Cemetery in Mullica Township was one of the cemeteries that
was hit, he said.
“Cemeteries in other municipalities may have been robbed. This is still under investigation,” said Zeck on Friday.
More
than 200 items, including statues, gates and fencing, were stolen and
sold to Bruce Dooley, the manager of Elwood Antiques in Mullica
Township, police said.
“The metal poles could be hundreds of years old,” said Zeck, who added some of the stolen items were new.
Ferris
and Drinkhouse had stopped by to see Dooley at least 30 times over a
two-month period and brought a few items with them each time, Dooley
said.
They had an elaborate story of how obtained these items that they were slowly selling to Dooley.
Dooley
was told they were cleaning out the barn for a friend of their
grandfather outside of Manahawkin, and the barn had the stuff in it for
50 years. Dooley was told that the materials originally came from a
plane crash in a cemetery.
“The
owner of the barn got the cemetery material because he was going to
outline his property with it. He got old and never did it. He was
selling the property and had to empty out the barn,” said Dooley on
Friday.
Dooley estimates he
spent about $4,000 on the cemetery items. He said he had dozens of
people interested in buying pieces of the collection over the weeks, but
he did not sell any of the individual pieces because he was waiting to
acquire the entire collection.
Ferris
and Drinkhouse told Dooley they had about 50 more items to sell him,
and it take a couple of weeks to bring the rest of the collection to
him, Dooley said. Some of the items, particularly the marble statues,
were heavy. They were transporting them by car, which led to the
numerous visits, he said.
“It was aesthetically appealing. A lot
of people like macabre or post-mortem stuff,” Dooley said. “I had never
seen anything like these pieces.”
The
police originally spotted the cemetery metal railings and pipes on
Wednesday in the front yard of Dooley’s home while on routine patrol,
Zeck said.
After seeing the
cemetery materials at Dooley’s home, they stopped Elwood Antiques, also
on Wednesday, Zeck said. The police took all of the cemetery materials
that Ferris and Drinkhouse allegedly sold Dooley, he said.
Dooley
has been in the antiques business for the past 32 years, the last 17
years in Mullica Township. He said he has never had something like this
happen to him previously.
The
Mullica Township Police Department is advising people that if they
believe the cemetery where their loved one is buried has been robbed,
they should report it to their local police departments and tell them
that Mullica Township may have the items.
Contact: 609-272-7202
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