Daughter to Thief: Please Return Mom's Ashes

A Minnesota woman had planned to scatter her late mother's ashes on a vacation this summer—but they've been stolen by a burglar, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. The distraught daughter says the thief can keep the jewelry and electronic equipment he stole but she desperately wants the ashes back. "It just bothers me that they might be lying in a garbage can somewhere," she said.

The ashes were kept in a velvet bag marked "Mattson Funeral Home" inside a jewelry box. Cops are trying to track down the culprit and the local funeral director is appealing for the thief to return the ashes anonymously.  "Drop it off at the police station, mail it—we don't care," she said. "Anybody who was in this situation wouldn't want their mom to be out missing somewhere." (More burglary stories.)