Angelo McClean supervises three cemeteries in Dunn. His top priority is grounds maintenance, but lately his duties have included vandalism patrol.
"I noticed the problem around Wednesday when I was cutting grass," he said.
Two tombstones at Greenwood Cemetery were knocked completely off their bases. Vandals damaged another tombstone on the other side of town at Resthaven Cemetery. Each tombstone weighed between 200 and 250 pounds.
The town of Dunn operates both cemeteries.
"This is a bad time for anything to go wrong that costs money," public works superintendent Tom Jernigan said.
The town has dealt with the problem of cemetery vandalism before. Three months ago, 23 tombstones had to be replaced at Greenwood Cemetery. Authorities charged a 15-year-old with the vandalism. He had to pay $810 in restitution for the damage, but Jernigan said it will be the taxpayers that will be stuck with the bulk of the repair costs.
"Of course, the government has no money of its own, so people ultimately pay for all of it," Jernigan said.
Town officials expect to clean up the damage over the next couple of days.
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