Vandals struck St. Albert’s Catholic cemetery at some point last weekend, knocking over four gravestones in an apparent random act.
The toppling at the cemetery on St. Vital Avenue came to light on Tuesday morning when someone visiting another memorial noticed the damage.
“There was a visitor to the cemetery visiting a family member and she saw it and reported it to the parish,” said Ann Glas, the facilities manager.
Glas said the four stones that were toppled don’t share anything in common and it appears to be just a senseless act. She said the stones themselves were essentially unscathed.
“Other than minor little scratches, they are all back [in place] and reset by our staff,” she said. “It was minor, though for those families it is obviously not minor.”
Glas said the facility does not see a lot of vandalism, but always reports incidents to police.
“They keep an eye on the cemetery and we report these incidents regardless of how big or how small they are so they have good records.”
She said the RCMP also makes regular patrols of the area.
Const. Janice Schoepp said officers were on site to document the damage, but need help from the public to be able to catch the culprits.
Anyone with any information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700.
