Memphis family devastated after porch pirates steal grandmother’s ashes

A Tennessee woman is devastated about losing her grandmother for a second time after her ashes were stolen by a porch pirate.

“She was definitely my rock when it came to grandparents. She was there for all the graduations, all the birthdays,” Amy Rost told WREG.

“It’s definitely been difficult. It’s one of those things where we’re trying to weigh the pros of the situation,” Rost said.

Rost’s grandmother died in October. She was cremated, and her ashes were divided between Rost’s father, Jeff, and her aunt, who lives in Ohio, and shipped to Jeff’s home in Memphis’ Midtown neighborhood.

Tracking information showed that the package containing the ashes was delivered on Dec. 4 — but when Jeff went outside to get it off his front porch, there was nothing there.

He believes the irreplaceable package was snatched by a thief.

“We’ve had so many things stolen here. Everything from tables and chairs to a can of Raid. Someone is always coming up and grabbing whatever they can find,” he told the outlet.

Memphis is ranked the second worst city in the country for porch pirates, according to a report by Safewise last month.

Nationally, package thefts have led to losses of up to $6 billion nationwide, if the average package stolen was $50, according to Safewise. Over half of the packages stolen were from Amazon.

The family is now begging for whoever took the box to return it — no questions asked.

“If I saw somebody bring a box up and leave it on the porch, I’ll leave it til they’re gone,” Jeff told WREG. “I’m not trying to prosecute anybody, it’s just it would certainly be nice to have it back.”

The Rosts said they plan to install a security camera to scare off future thieves.