MOSES LAKE — It’s one of those unwritten rules in society that things left at a gravesite – like, say, flowers – should be left undisturbed. Should be undisturbed. Currently that’s a problem in Moses Lake.

“I started getting reports of stolen items on Mother’s Day,” said Susan Freemen, owner of Pioneer Memorial Gardens. That’s also when flowers and planters started disappearing from Guarding Angels Cemetery, said co-owner Ronda Kayser. “It’s really spiked this year,” especially since Memorial Day, she said.

Freeman said the thievery got so bad on Memorial Day weekend that unknown suspects stole most of the flowers in “three-quarters of the cemetery at least.” The cemetery is bisected by a driveway, and thieves got “90 percent of the flowers east of the driveway.” The thefts took place all weekend, but a number were stolen on Memorial Day afternoon.

Nor is it only flowers left by families. Kayser and her husband Jerry planted flowers at Guarding Angels, and the thieves dug up and stole a portion of the planted display.

A woman with several family members at Pioneer Memorial made special planters and left them in the cemetery on Memorial Day, intending to use them every year. All were stolen on Memorial Day weekend, Freeman said. Many people buy potted plants for Memorial Day with the intention of taking them home and planting them, but in a lot of cases they were stolen, she said. A family leaves flowers daily on a grave at Guarding Angels, and they’ve been stolen every day, Kayser said.

“There are dozens of victims in this case,” Freeman said.

In both cases, cemetery workers do pick up plants. The grass is mowed weekly, and any plants left are picked up prior to mowing. However, “I don’t throw away plants,” Freeman said. After a few days the potted plants start to dry out, so she takes them to the cemetery office and waters them.

People who want to leave flowers, whether it’s a bouquet or flowers in a pot, should take a picture of the arrangement, Freeman said. That way there’s identification if flowers are recovered.

‘What I would do is just take a single rose. A single live rose,” Kayser said, or a single flower of any variety. They are less likely to be stolen, she said.