DUNN, N.C. (WNCN) – A deceased Dunn police captain’s grave is regularly being targeted by thieves.
The widow of Herman Chavis and his fellow officers are begging the burglars to stop and show decency to a man described by one lieutenant as the heart of the Dunn Police Department.
Chavis died in 2015 after suffering from ongoing heart problems. He celebrated his 50th birthday and got to meet his first grandchild a few months before his death. Now Lisa Chavis must tell her grandson not only about his grandfather, but about people who are responsible for removing flowers from his grave.
“It’s hard to explain to a three-year-old, ‘well I put flowers on Papa’s grave, where are they at?’ It’s hard,” Chavis said.
“It’s hard to keep (buy and placing flowers there), and then somebody goes out there and steals them. It’s tough on me and our children when we do that.”
Thieves took poinsettias and Christmas decorations from the grave twice this month. Chavis said someone stole flowers she left at Greenwood Cemetery for their wedding anniversary soon after she placed them on his grave. A flower arrangement for his birthday was gone within a week. Valentine’s Day and Father’s Day flowers also disappeared quickly.
“I’m waiting until Saturday to put flowers back on his grave because I’m scared they’re going to be stolen again. This has been an ongoing thing ever since he’s been passed away,” Chavis said.
“I go out there a lot and cry, because I want to put flowers, like on our anniversary, but I’m scared to because I’m scared they’ll get gone.”
Lisa Chavis believes the culprits are after her husband’s grave because he was a police officer. She said there may be people he arrested who are out for some form of revenge, or they may just be people who don’t like cops.
Dunn Police Lieutenant Angela Hinson said she doesn’t know what the motivation for the thefts is, but it is her mission to find out.
“It’s upsetting, but I’ll do everything in my power to find out who’s doing it,” Hinson said. “I’ll find out, and whoever did it I’ll to the fullest extent of the law take care of it.”
Hinson considered Chavis and his family to be her extended family. She keeps his obituary in a frame on her desk so it’s the first thing she sees when she comes to the office each day. She said it reminds her of who she wants to emulate as an officer.
She wants to protect the Chavis family, and that includes her mentor’s grave.
“Everybody’s grave is somebody’s brother, father, mother, sister, baby. Everybody’s grave is important, and when people take time to put flowers and things there, that’s somebody who they love and remember, and when (a thief steals from a grave), they’re hurting their family,” Hinson said.
Lisa Chavis made a plea for the thieves to stop, and for other visitors to the cemetery to help keep an eye on her husband’s grave.