Two individuals were arrested in August for stealing brass doors from cemeteries in Forest Park and surrounding municipalities. Police departments in Forest Park, Hillside, LaGrange, Westchester and Justice collaborated to locate John Kozeluh, 49, and Lana Grey, 38, both of Westchester, and charge them for the crimes.
Several mausoleum door thefts have occurred in the western suburbs this summer, and Forest Park police have reported four such cases since the start of July. Following Forest Park’s first mausoleum door theft of the year on July 6, a police report dated July 19 said another pair of solid bronze mausoleum doors, as well as bronze window bars, were observed missing in a Forest Park area cemetery. According to the police report, each door weighed between 150 and 200 pounds. They would cost around $30,000 to replace. Another report dated Aug. 6 estimated that each door was worth over $1,000, and an Aug. 8 report values a stolen 300-pound door at $7,000.
“It definitely doesn’t seem like that [stealing mausoleum doors] was a regular crime. It has happened over the years, and I know it’s typically for scrap metal,” Forest Park Police Chief Kenneth Gross told the Review in July…