MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — More than 120 headstones at a Tennessee cemetery were overturned by freshly fired employees, according to the cemetery’s owner.
Nexstar’s WREG counted about 125 overturned headstones at the historic New Park Cemetery in Memphis as police investigated the scene Monday evening.
The damage potentially totals tens of thousands of dollars. The owner, who asked not to be identified on camera, said he’s taking all the steps he can to get things fixed as soon as possible.
He told police that three employees were fired Monday afternoon, and after they were let go, they got into a company work truck without permission and drove recklessly through the cemetery, knocking over the headstones.
A police report states that at one point, the “owner got into his personal vehicle in an attempt to catch all three suspects.”
He was able to recover the cemetery’s work truck, and signed a refusal to prosecute.
The owner told WREG that he “hates it happened” and is “taking steps” to make repairs. As to why he chose not to prosecute, he said he was “concerned they could do more damage in the moment.” But that decision is subject to change.
He said his team met Tuesday morning to figure out how to contact the affected families.
The owner also said he contacted a company to let them know they might need more headstones to replace the damaged ones. He reached out to a temp agency as well for help getting the affected headstones up again. He’s hopeful it can be done by Christmas.
As for why those three employees were fired in the first place, the owner declined to elaborate.