YORK, Pa. - An urn containing ashes of a York County man were stolen at his celebration of life ceremony. His family is now pleading for the person who took the urn to return it.
"They didn't just take an object," said Paul Auman, Sam Abreght's step-father. "They took our peace of mind, and everything else with it."
Abreght's mother and step-father are trying to come to terms with their new reality. Not only did their son, 42-year-old Sam Abreght, pass away after a five year battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but someone took the urn containing his ashes during his celebration of life ceremony at the Salvation Army in York.
"It's ridiculous. Why would you take it," asked Mary Auman, Abreght's mother. "What reason would there be?"
Auman says, they finished up the ceremony in the chapel, and were in the other room eating dinner. When they came back into the chapel about 45 minutes later, one of two urns sitting on the table were gone.
"It's disgusting, it's disrespectful," said Mary Auman. "And it's irresponsible on their end."
His parents believe the ashes must have been stolen by someone attending the ceremony. Sam's parents have filed a police report, and the person responsible for stealing this urn could face felony charges. However, that's not what his parents want to see happen.
"We just want it returned, and being Christian," said Paul Auman. "We just want to forgive and forget."
There is a reward for the return of Abreght's ashes.