“I didn’t have — other than her ashes — have anything else to kind of remember her with,” Bianca Brockl said.<\/p>\n
The bench quickly became a gathering place for the family, a spot where they could sit together and feel close to her mother.<\/p>\n
“To have a set place to remember her and sort of be together like a family again,” said Rachel Brockl, Erna Brockl’s granddaughter.<\/p>\n
That sense of togetherness was disrupted when the family noticed something was missing: there was a hole where the plaque used to be.<\/p>\n
“I said, ‘It can’t be right,’ and I looked and I looked and I looked around, not knowing at that point that other benches were also vandalized,” Brockl said.<\/p>\n
MORE: 200 bronze vases stolen from Contra Costa Co. cemetery, sheriff’s office says<\/a><\/p>\n The Jean Sweeney Open Space Park Fund board said a total of 26 plaques were stolen on the same night.<\/p>\n Dorothy Freeman, who serves on the board, believes the motive may be tied to the value of the materials.<\/p>\n “Evidently, they use the bronze, and they can probably melt it down and sell it,” Freeman said.<\/p>\n According to the ABC7 Eyewitness News data team, bronze has been selling for as high as $3.70 a pound at scrap yards. Copper, its main ingredient, recently hit its highest price in five years.<\/p>\n Park leaders are now looking for ways to prevent future thefts. Freeman said the fund is working with Alameda Advertising and Recognition, the company that produced most of the original plaques, to get creative.<\/p>\n
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