Burglar Breaks Into Veteran’s Home, Smokes Wife’s Ashes

Image Courtesy Fox 10 News Video below

By Ann Rowland

Phillip McMullen put a padlock on the door of his Citronelle, Alabama home and left to visit friends out-of-town. When he returned home he discovered that burglars had gained entrance into his home by breaking a window. They got away with several items, including fishing equipment and a generator. However, it isn’t the missing items that have this Viet Nam vet furious enough to want to fight again.

While looking through his home to see what the burglar had taken, McMullen discovered that the thieves completely ransacked his home and tried unsuccessfully to open his gun safe. It was then that he discovered that his wife’s ashes were not on his headboard. He found them under his toolbox and what he believes the burglar did with some of those ashes is unthinkable.

McMullen kept the ashes of his wife of 22 years in a plastic bed on his headboard. He believes that the thieves thought they were some sort of drugs and actually smoked some of them. “Tried it out to see if it was some kind of drugs, and I bet that was a nasty taste when they (did) that though.” McMullen told Fox 10 News.

“I guess they figured out this stuff ain’t worth smoking, so they threw it up underneath one of my toolboxes,” he said.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s office is investigating and is hopeful that someone will come forward and turn the criminals in. If it is discovered that the burglars tampered with the ashes they will face additional charges, including desecration of a grave. “If someone did something like this, that’s just horrible,” Lori Myles of the sheriff’s office told Fox 10 News.

McMullen is hoping that the thieves are captured and brought to justice. Divine justice is a different matter, however, as far as McMullen is concerned. “I don’t know if God will forgive them for what they’ve done or not.”

“It makes me want to fight again and I don’t like to fight,” McMullen said.