The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of about $2,575 worth of equipment from a building at Shepherd Hills Cemetery, 1925 Old Hwy. M, in Barnhart. A chainsaw, concrete saw, power washer and welder were reported stolen from the cemetery’s shop, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
At about 4:30 p.m. Sept. 19, an employee discovered a lock had been damaged on the cemetery’s maintenance building. He said nothing was missing from that building, but because the lock was damaged, he started moving tools from there into the cemetery’s shop building and discovered a window was broken at the shop building and equipment had been stolen that building, the report said.
In addition, a briefcase was stolen from a safe that had been left open in an office inside the shop building. No value was reported for the briefcase, which contained cemetery documents, spokesman Grant Bissell said.
The employee who discovered the stolen equipment said that when he left work at about 4:30 p.m. Sept. 16, there was no damage to either the maintenance building or shop building, the report said.
As of Sept. 22, none of the stolen items had been recovered, and no suspects had been identified, Bissell said. He asks anyone with information about the incident to call the Sheriff’s Office at 636-797-5515.