(ROSENBERG) – Rosenberg police have arrested a 63-year-old registered sex offender for allegedly stealing bronze vases from a local cemetery.
The Rosenberg Police Department recently received an increase of reports of bronze vases being stolen from the Davis-Greenlawn Cemetery located 3900 B.F. Terry Blvd. The reports indicated unknown individuals were taking the bronze vases which hold flowers from individual grave sites. The vases are valued at $1,000 each and are normally attached to headstones.
Officers assigned to a newly created Strategic Enforcement Team were given the assignment to find the individual responsible for these thefts. SET officers developed a person of interest in the thefts and identified him as Rolando Trevino, a 63-year-old registered sex offender from Brookshire.
During the investigation, officers discovered Trevino was using a fictitious license plate to hide the identity of his vehicle. SET officers began a surveillance regimen of the Davis Greenlawn Cemetery and ultimately saw Trevino on the cemetery grounds after allegedly stealing more bronze vases. Rosenberg Patrol Officers and SET Officers quickly converged on Trevino as he was leaving the property and recovered 17 freshly stolen bronze vases. Trevino was interviewed by Rosenberg Police Detectives and confessed to stealing the bronze vases for purposes of selling them as precious metal items and confessed to doing this multiple times over the past few weeks, according to police.
Trevino was arrested and charged with 17 counts of theft from a grave, displaying a fictitious license plate, and driving while license invalid. Each of the 17 theft charges are State Jail Felonies.
"Precious metal theft is on the rise nationally and we are not immune from these trends,” said Rosenberg Police Chief Jonathan white. “We normally see this in the catalytic convertor thefts, but Rolando Trevino has shown us a new low by stealing from the deceased. It is heart breaking to read police reports where family members arrive to visit their loved one’s grave sites only to find they have been a victim of theft. I commend our SET team for putting a stop to this and for the many hours of labor they put into this investigation."
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