Stolen ashes
The theft of Carolyn Parker’s car happened on Monday in Brockton, Massachusetts and Parker said the ashes of her mom, Donna Potter, who died at the age of 71 last July, were in a small baggie in a white box in her unlocked glove box. Did they look like drugs? They could have, and otherwise — why take them?
Another reason Parker thinks the thief who stole from her Jeep might have been a drug addict and ‘use’ her mother’s ashes is that there were other things in her vehicle, things of value, that were not taken. She told Brockton Enterprise reporter Benjamin Paulin the thief left behind 20 bucks in change, a gold-chain hanging down from her rear-view mirror and an expensive pair of sunglasses.
“It’s disturbing,” the 48-year-old Parker told the Enterprise. “They wouldn’t have taken it if they knew what it was. I hope they figured it out. The thought that somebody could have ingested that, it’s mortifying.”
Ready to forgive
Parker had the ashes in her Jeep as she was intending to spread them in locations she knew her beloved mother liked. There is hope the thief would have figured out what he or she had taken and Parker is hoping they’ll find away to return her mother’s ashes so she can do as she intended.
“It must have been somebody who thought they hit the mother load with drugs and just grabbed it. It was dark and maybe they couldn’t see exactly what it was,” she said. “I feel bad for them. There’s a huge drug problem going on and clearly that person going through my car is desperate.”
Police haven’t any leads and the hope of having the ashes returned are slim. Parker has no malice, however, and hopes the thief realizes what they took before ingesting her mother and return her.
“I just want them (her mother’s ashes) back,” she said. “There’s no hate. Everybody has their own problems. Just please return them.”
