Social media groups from Stratford have been lit up recently with stories and reports of vandalism to love one’s grave sites at Avondale Cemetery. While the disturbances of mementos at some sites in the cemetery are unfortunate, the city believes the situation is now under control.
Quin Malott, Manager of Parks, Forestry and Cemetery Community Services for Stratford, said the actions were the result of one individual.
“We know that a disturbed individual was in the cemetery on Friday, May 3, and was seen disrupting things near several monuments,” Malott said. “Police were called and they dealt with the individual. A lot of the items that were disturbed or broken weren’t of high value financially but they were ones with sentimental value. It’s heartbreaking for the families involved.”
Malott said the city thinks roughly half a dozen monuments were disturbed by the individual and that anything they found removed from a grave site was returned there.
“Anything that we could put back that wasn’t broken, we put it back,” he said. “Like I said, this was just one person in the middle of the afternoon. It was very unfortunate."
