Jan Kleijnenbreugel stared at his mother’s grave in disbelief a few weeks ago. “It was like the ground fell out from under me,” he says of the moment he discovered bronze statues had been stolen from the tomb. Theft has occurred many times before at the cemetery on Professor Lorentzlaan in Tilburg. Statues, candlesticks and flower arrangements disappeared from various graves. Last week a memorial stone was found destroyed.
Jan has had enough. “There is an innocent person buried here, you should leave him alone. That’s it.”
Jan visits his mother’s grave every day. On October 24, he received a call from a relative that something was wrong at the grave. “I immediately went to look and stared at the empty places at my mother’s grave. Six bronze statues had been removed. I was angry and sad at the same time and I still am.”
The Tilburg citizen has reported the theft and hopes that action will be taken. According to him, relatives have been keeping an extra eye on things lately: “But it often happens at night.”
“This has been going on for years.”
Funeral florist Rob van Gool also recognizes the problems at the cemetery in Broekhoven. He has been delivering flower arrangements there for years. “I hear it again and again: then a candlestick has been removed, then a statue or a flower arrangement. It has been a bit quieter for a while now, but this has been going on for years.”
In 2022, at least fourteen graves were plundered and Pastor Robert van Aken reported grave desecration. But it also happened in 2011, 2015 and 2017. According to Van Gool, relatives have been asking for camera surveillance for years. “I also experienced this at a cemetery in Breda, where they put up cameras. Since then it has been quiet. I think it scares people off.”
Last week there was also another vandalism at the cemetery. The memorial stone of Wendy, a young woman who died in a fire on a boat in Tilburg in June, was destroyed. Her relatives suspect that this was a targeted action.
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Cemetery manager Remko Hendrickx understands the seriousness of the incidents, but says it is difficult to prevent this. “The gates close as soon as it gets dark, but people just climb over them. We have installed fake cameras after previous vandalism, but they don’t seem to make much of an impression.”
Hendrickx also hears the call to install real cameras and will discuss this, but he doubts whether it makes sense: “Those thieves are often unrecognizable.” In addition, there would also be some technical obstacles in installing security cameras. According to the manager, there are regular consultations with boas and the police. “They sometimes patrol extra, but that is often only temporary.”
Hendrickx emphasizes that the vandalism and theft are taken seriously: “We discuss every incident with the board.” But taking measures remains difficult, according to him. “It remains an open area. During the day, anyone can walk around,” he says.
“I’m considering not putting the statues there anymore.”
Hendrickx sees theft happen more often at the cemetery on Lorentzlaan than at the other three cemeteries in Tilburg where he is manager. “There are more graves here with valuable statues: bronze and copper are popular with thieves. We advise relatives, no matter how annoying, to glue valuables to the grave and not to anchor them. Otherwise they will simply tear the entire grave apart.”
Jan is thinking about a different design for his mother’s grave: “I am considering not putting the statues there anymore, because this is not normal anymore.”