Travel urn with ashes among items stolen by Baltimore's car burglars
BALTIMORE -- A victim of a car burglary in Fells Point is searching for an irreplaceable item: a travel urn with a late friend's ashes inside.
The car was parked at the corner of S. Ann St. and Aliceanna St. on Sunday afternoon when Shelly Layfield found the vent window smashed and the inside of the car rummaged through.
The two-inch, blue travel urn was placed inside the center console after being filled professionally to be taken abroad as part of a tradition to honor Layfield's friend, Nancy, who died after a long battle with blood cancer on Christmas Day 2019.
"When I cleaned out her house, she had a list of all the places she wanted to go. So all these places that I've been to are on her list, as well as so many more," Layfield said. "We've taken her to Iceland, we've been to Greece, Exuma Bahamas, Mexico several times and, in two weeks, I'm getting ready to take a trip to Italy."
Paychecks and a guitar signed by country singer Luke Combs secured in the trunk were also stolen from the car, Layfield said.
"It's a huge loss as well because our co-worker is battling stage three lymphoma right now," 'she said. "She's 26 years old, has two twins barely two years old, so we were trying to gather money for her GoFundMe."
Layfield has been in contact with her bank after the stolen paychecks were cashed, which has helped police with their investigation into the theft and fraud investigation.
"We verified who they are through the banks. I showed up there on Tuesday with the police with documentation of things that were taken," Layfield said. "They did answer the door. They do have proof of all my paychecks in their account, cashed in their mobile account. Denied the fact that they had an urn."
While she waits to hear confirmation on whether the suspect will be prosecuted, she hopes in the meantime the travel urn will be returned before her next trip.
"All you gotta do is drop the ashes off," she said. "No questions asked."
This is one of at least 63 thefts from vehicles that have been reported to Baltimore Police across the city over the last 7 days. This month so far, there have been 127 car burglaries.
