PITTSBURGH -- Dozens of gravestones -- more than 100 at last count -- were found toppled over, causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage inside Calvary Cemetery in Pittsburgh's Greenfield neighborhood.
The Catholic Cemeteries Association of Pittsburgh posted
a gallery of vandalism photos on its Web site as a way of hopefully contacting the many families who may be affected.
WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Jon Greiner said employees discovered the situation Wednesday morning when they reported to work.
After WTAE Channel 4 Action News aired its report, people who had been moved to tears went to the cemetery and wanted to know why someone would even think about doing such damage.
"I was just horrified. You know, my mom's buried here. I just checked; her grave is fine. We have several other family members and friends buried here as well," said Susan Ross.
The cemetery on Hazelwood Avenue -- one of the city's oldest -- is locked at night, which means someone snuck inside after visiting hours ended.
"It hurt. it was unbelievable, actually, unbelievable what was done to some of the beautiful stones, especially the angel laying face down," said Anne Ward. "It was just very hurtful."
The only clues left behind were beer cans strewn about the area.
"In a Catholic church, we have two sacred places -- the church and the cemetery -- and we have people coming in and desecrating one of our sacred places. It's outrageous," said Lawrence Domencic, of the cemeteries association.
The cemeteries association will try to contact relatives and notify them of the damage. Insurance may handle many claims.
If relatives can't be found, the association will bear the cost to fix the damage. The cost was still being assessed late Wednesday afternoon.
"In some cases, we can upright the markers ourselves," Domencic said. "What we don't know is what other damage might have been done because, as you see, they're all lying face down, and we don't know if there's any damage to the face of the markers or not."
"I'm just horrified. I mean, I can't believe somebody would do something like this," Ross said.
Police do patrol the area, but wouldn't go inside at night because the gates were closed.
Perry Muse, a neighbor, said the community will watch the cemetery more closely now that they know things such as this can happen in the nicest of places.
"It's a wonderful place and I can't understand why someone would do something like this. It's heartbreaking," Muse said.
Anyone who saw something suspicious near the cemetery or knows who may have caused the damage is asked to call Pittsburgh police.
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