Morris County porch pirate steals man’s ashes

There’s a thief in New Jersey who’s in for a surprise when he opens the package he stole from an apartment complex in North Jersey. It contains a decorative urn filled with a man’s ashes.

The Morris County Sheriff’s Office is on the lookout for whoever swiped the FedEx box from the Village Green apartment complex in the Budd Lake section of Mount Olive.

The Morris County Sheriff’s Office CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information about the left.

Be on the lookout for a decorative urn with a motorcycle on the top and the man’s name engraved on it. It was stolen on Feb. 26 sometime between 12:50 and 2 p.m.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to visit copcall.org or call 973-COP-CALL.

The victim, who hasn’t been named, received a notification that the package had been delivered but it was nowhere to be found. Morris County Sheriff James Gannon told the Daily Voice that he wants the public’s help to solve this crime.

While this incident of porch piracy is particularly noteworthy due to the contents of the package, it is unfortunately rather common. Approximately 1 in 5 Americans has been a victim of package theft, and 40% of those crimes took place in apartment complexes and communities.

The average package lost is worth $156, with the total lost to package theft in the US totaling over $5 billion a year. Eleven percent of Americans have had three or more packages stolen!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.