Coquitlam RCMP are asking neighbours in the Langan Avenue area of Port Coquitlam to keep their eyes open for a discarded purse or especially a red velvet bag, which contains the ashes of a woman's dead father.
On April 11 a woman reported her black leather purse had been stolen from her vehicle, which was parked in her driveway in the 1700-block of Langan Avenue. The purse contained various credit cards and pieces of identification, as well as a bag containing her father's ashes.
"The ID can be replaced, but my father can't," she wrote in an email to The Tri-City News.
It's believed the vehicle was broken into sometime on April 9.
"The woman is understandably upset over her father's ashes," said Cpl. Jamie Chung, adding thieves often rifle through a stolen purse, take what they like and discard the rest.
"We're advising people in the surrounding area to be a good neighbour, to search around the bushes and yards and if there's a garbage can, to look into it to see if they find a black leather purse, a red velvet bag or any urns," Chung said.
Anyone with information about the theft or the missing ashes is asked to contact police at 604-945-1550 and quote file number 2015-11207.
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