As funeral directors and as consumers, we are so eager to offer help to others who have had a death that we can loose sight of what should be obvious.  But since totally honest people can overlook what dishonest people are doing, we can all get caught up in the same trap and end up with egg on our face. 

Point in case:  When you see a bronze flower vase for sale, no base or chain attached, and is an item that wholesales for $175, and 45 minutes before the auction ends, it is just sitting there stalled at a $20 bid, I know it is tempting.  We all have a family that we have served that could use a nice vase for very little and we would all love to help that great family.  But we absolutely MUST stop and consider that the vase may have been stolen out of a cemetery and is now on the market for anything from the scrap value to the additional value that may be obtained going to a target market such as this section of Ebay.  Please, before you buy, ask the seller a question or two.  Are they a legitimate dealer?  If not, why do they want to sell it?  Really, when was the last time you ever heard of a family deciding that this would be a good time to sell our bronze vases out at the cemetery?

We can all be fooled by these creeps that steal items such as this from a cemetery, but lets at least be alert to it and take an extra step or two to see if we can trip them up.   The public expects us to police our own industry the best we can and it is our responsibility to not participate in the "black market" of the cemetery products.   We may be doing business with our worst enemies and if we don't control it, we can easily become our own worst enemies.  If someone cannot give you a good solid answer to some basic questions, or gives you no answer at all, then please either do some more homework or avoid them all together.  Go on the basis that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.