Crosses Stolen From Crash Victim’s Memorial
Thieves target a memorial for a car crash victim. On Wednesday, a friend of Ft. Carson soldier Jeff Hawthorne noticed two crosses that were set up on the corner of Constitution and Academy were missing.
“I was so upset I was actually shaking,” said Valentina True.
The crosses were small, and True said one of them had been specially ordered with a plaque for Hawthorne. Hawthorne died after he crashed his Dodge Viper in April. Police said they believed he was street racing, but Hawthorne’s family doesn’t think that’s true.
“He would never do anything to put himself in danger or anyone else,” said Hawthorne’s sister Diane Marceau.
Marceau said the crash site has become a place where family and friends go to remember Hawthorne.
“To know that his friends cared enough to put (the memorial) there as a reminder, not of the accident, but a reminder of him, meant a lot,” she said.
Marceau and some of Hawthorne’s friends brought flowers to the site on Sunday, so it wouldn’t remain empty. They’re hoping whoever took the crosses will have the heart to return them, even if they just drop them off at the nearby Sinclair gas station.
“All I want to say to whoever took them is, really no hard feelings, we don’t want to press charges, we just want the crosses back,” said True.
In the last few weeks KRDO Newschannel 13 been contacted by two other families who’ve had items stolen from memorial sites. They said police and the city have both told them that they don’t touch memorials.
