Dale Flatt is passionate about cemeteries, so naturally when he learned that some monuments and headstones at the Oakwood Cemetery in East Austin were vandalized he was livid.
Someone snuck into the graveyard and broke between 20 and 30 headstones. Some of them dated back more than 150 years.
Acting director for Austin Parks and Recreation Police, Stuart Strong said it's saddening when people commit such a crime.
"It's clearly an act of vandalism," Strong said.
One of the gravesites destroyed was one of two of its kind at the cemetery.
"Somebody just came in here and like a hammer, just beat this thing, and just scattered it all over the place," Flatt said.
It was covered with seashells and marble. It will be near impossible to reproduce but park police said they will do what they can to salvage what was damaged.
"We don't want to just leave the stones on the ground … We will make an effort to do a repair," Stuart said. "It's not the most sophisticated repair but it's going to be a nice one. And if the family wants to come in and do something else, certainly they will," Strong said.
Austin police completed a report on the case and recovered beer cans and a pipe which could serve as evidence.
"Smart people don't do this, stupid people do this. And stupid people eventually get caught," Flatt said.
Both Flatt and park police hope they're caught sooner rather than later.
Flatt wants to work with the families of those buried in Austin's cemeteries to find ways to put an end to graveyard vandalism.
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Cemetery vandals
Vandals destroyed 20 and 30 headstones at the historic Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, some which date back to the 1850s.
 
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Save Austin's Cemeteries is working with families to try to repair the gravestones and increase security at the cemetery.
