It’s an act so disgraceful it’s near painful to contemplate.
An appalled Texas family is desperately searching for their dead grandmother’s wedding ring after it was stolen from her very own fingers at her open casket funeral.
Surveillance footage shows an unidentified woman reaching into the coffin and wriggling the ring free from Lois Hicks’ hand, tearing the 88-year-old’s skin in the process, at her Sunset Memorial Garden funeral service on Friday.
The theft was reported to the Odessa police department in Texas who are currently assisting efforts to return the ring – which has been in the family for over half a century – to the Hicks.
In their distress, the family also uploaded the series of surveillance videos to Facebook, hoping members of the community would help identify the woman.
You can watch one of the clips below. Post continues after video…
Facebook
Speaking to BuzzFeed News on Monday, Cpl. Steve LeSueur of the Odessa Police Department said that while police are chasing numerous leads, an arrest is yet to be made. “We appreciate all the support from the public we’ve received on this case,” he told the publication about the crime, which he says is the first of its kind in his career. At the time of her death Lois Hicks was 88, her husband of 55 years, Gayle Hicks, passed away three years ago. The fact that it was the pair’s wedding ring that was taken makes the ordeal even more confronting for the family. Facebook
“I can’t believe someone would be that low… It makes me sick to my stomach,” Lois’ daughter, Vel McKee, told the Odessa American. “Horrible. I hope they catch her.”
“We just never dreamed that something like this would happen. Not in a million years.”
Top Comments
No worse, my brother stole my Mums wedding rings (her original and newbie dad bought her) off her living hand just so I, the only daughter couldn't have them. I always urged her to keep wearing them as the memory of Dad would give her strength and I'd cherish them later on.
If it was a stranger I would've dealt with it much better.
Greed for some just consumes them.
Wonder what he's ever done with that true promised gift of love, that he stole.
Trust he wears that guilt for ever, but highly unlikely such is the power of mammon.
Hang on. They were going to bury a valuable and presumably treasured ring?
Although I can see your point, you could continue with the same logic and ask "They were going to bury (or incinerate) an expensive coffin?" Or question the disposal of perfectly good clothing. But if you're missing that the funeral is for the living, and that the grieving have an emotional need for these rituals and symbolic gestures, then it won't make much sense. In this case, I'm guessing that the deceased had expressed the wish to be buried with the ring that symbolised her eternal love for her husband. The theft is cruel toward the living and disrespectful to the deceased.