‘Sentimental’ pot stolen from grave

A WOMAN was left “upset and angry” after a thief stole an African pot from her parents’ grave.

Sheila Clack, 67, pictured inset, told the Tele she walked around the whole of Tayport Cemetery looking for it after discovering it was missing.

The pot, at her mum Annie and dad James Niven’s grave, was a memento of the 43 years the family had spent living in South Africa and held “huge sentimental value”.

Mrs Clack, who lives in the town’s Elizabeth Street, said: “My mum and dad’s ashes have been in the cemetery since it opened in 2013 and so has the pot.

“I go down there regularly to visit the grave and water the plants and flowers we put there.

“The pot had a plant inside it and whoever took the pot had pulled the plant out and left it lying there — it was quite upsetting.”

The pot was decorated with African elephants and although it was not of high monetary value, it was a rare find and described by Mrs Clack as “irreplaceable”.

She said: “I was so angry when I saw it was gone.

“I know I won’t find another one like it and, even if I did, I’d be too frightened to put it down in case someone took it again.”

Mrs Clack, originally from Dundee, moved from South Africa to Tayport in 2001 as she felt life abroad was getting too dangerous.

Her dad died aged 64 in South Africa in 1987 from cancer.

Mrs Clack brought his ashes home to Tayport with the intention of burying them with her mother when the time came.

Her mum died in 2011 at the age of 86 and her ashes were held on to by the family until the cemetery opened in 2013, when the two parents were buried together.

Mrs Clack said she contacted Fife Council to report the theft and the condition she found the graveyard in.

Last week, the Tele reported that a flower arrangement was stolen just hours after it was placed on Bradley Hirst’s grave at Shanwell Cemetery in Carnoustie.

The arrangement had been placed there by his mother, Sheila.

Just three hours later, she discovered the floral tribute had been stolen.

Sheila Clack was distressed when she saw the pot had been stolen from her parents’ grave, inset, at Tayport Cemetery.