BATON ROUGE - Mourning families in Baton Rouge are facing an added burden—thieves are targeting cemeteries across the city.

Minnie Smith owns a plot at Greenoaks cemetery on Florida Boulevard, where one day both she and her husband will be buried. Recently, she discovered a crest from her grave marker was missing.

"My son went back to look after he heard there were thefts going on out there," Smith said. "He saw where it was pried off the grave marker."

The grave marker was made of bronze and displayed carvings depicting things important to the family, similar to a family crest. Smith says the method to craft the marker is no longer possible.

On her grandson's grave, one of the vases was pulled up out of the slot in the ground. 

"[It] made me think they were trying to steal it, but they did not take it," she said.

A cemetery operator said they're working to replace missing vases as they're notified, but for Smith, the crest is a piece of family history she fears she will never see again. 

WBRZ also spoke to scrap yards in Baton Rouge and Port Allen, asking if anyone had dropped off cemetery vases. Employees said the items are illegal, and scrap yards will not accept them.