(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
MEAD, Wash. -Dale Baker takes time out of his busy schedule to make sure the Peone Cemetery in Mead right off of North Bruce Road is well cared for.
"It's a personal thing to me to volunteer here to keep something up that’s important to everybody in this community," said Volunteer Baker.
Baker has relatives and friends who are buried in the over 100-year-old cemetery. On Friday when he went to go check to see if everything was okay, he discovered it wasn't.
"They had started to break into the shed," said Baker.
They were using bolt cutters as their tool of choice to get into the shed. But since the first break-in five months ago Dale baker brought in a welder to fortify the shed which proved successful. The would-be thieves gave up but not before causing six hundred of dollars in damage and taking something valuable in hopes to catch them in the act.
"We had a camera on a tree, and they totally destroyed the cover on the camera, and they stole the camera," Baker added.
Dale does have a message to whoever might be responsible for the two break-ins.
"You are the lowest of the lowest. You come out and steal from a cemetery it may not mean anything to you, but it means a lot to people in this area."
On Saturday, a mobile welder came back to repair the damages.
If you have any information about these break-ins, you are asked to call crime check at (509) 456-2233.