200 Headstones Vandalized At Riverview Cemetery
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Joel Allman is outraged. Nearly 200 headstones were spray painted red Friday night.
"This is crazy. They missed my grandfather by less than two stones," Joel Allman said.
He considers himself one of the lucky ones for that matter. Others not so much.
"I don't know if it's teenagers. I don't know. It's disgusting though," Amy Rabickow said.
"No respect for other people's property or relatives," Keith Tardivo said.
Keith Tardivo's parents are buried here as well as his sister-in-law.
"I don't understand the mentality of anyone that would do that. It just doesn't make sense," Tardivo said.
James Kunkle with the Riverview Cemetery Association is trying to figure out how to clean this mess up.
"We're going to consult a couple of monument companies and go from there," Kunkle, who's a board member said.
Kunkle says they have to be extra careful.
"Dealing with granite and bronze we don't want to jump to conclusions and take care of it. We don't want to damage it any further," Kunkle said.
As far as the cost of clean-up, Kunkle doesn't have a clue. He says someone also stole the American flag from the flag pole Thursday night. He says it's hard to say if the same person or people are responsible. Cemetery officials believe whoever did this came in on foot.
"I'm just mortified. It's sad. It's sad when it comes to this is what people resort to in their evenings," Teri Biddle said. "They're very expensive to get replaced and I bought my sisters and both of my brothers."
Cemetery officials are suggesting to relatives to hold off cleaning their head stones until they hear back from other monument companies on Monday as far as the best chemicals to use.
The cemetery would like to take care of the clean-up.
If you have any information on who could have done this or saw any activity, you're being asked to call Riverview Cemetery in Apollo or Kiski Township Police.
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