Woman who stole from toddler’s grave said she was saving toy from dog

WATCH ABOVE: Hidden camera catches woman stealing toy from toddler’s gravesite

TORONTO – Four days after a hidden camera captured a toy duck being taken from a child’s gravesite in Ohio, 54-year-old grandmother Frieda Shade turned herself in to a local police department.

“Wednesday night late, almost after midnight…Frieda Shade came into our lobby and said, ‘Who do I need to talk to? I’m the person in the video that’s on your Facebook,’” said Police Detective Jon Sigler of the Ontario, Ohio department.

Shade was referring to a video that’s since gone viral, showing a woman wearing sunglasses and a white T-shirt, removing the stuffed Easter duck from a deceased 14-month-old’s grave. Parents of Hayden ‘Tank’ Cole Sheridan—who passed away in 2007—have told police that over the past two years they’ve lost hundreds of dollars in stolen flowers, wreaths and toy tanks.

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But Shade told the officer that she wasn’t a thief.

“She said that what happened was that she was at the cemetery, and she witnessed a dog running loose and this dog was apparently biting flowers,” said Sigler, who said he was filled in by the officer on duty Wednesday night.

“She feared the dog would get this stuffed animal in particular, and chew it up and destroy it. So in an attempt to save the duck, she picks it up and walks it over—which obviously we caught on video, her picking it up and walking away—she says after she exits the camera view, she places it on a trash can to prevent this dog from getting it. That’s the end of her involvement, she says.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "She feared the dog would get this stuffed animal in particular, and chew it up and destroy it. So in an attempt to save the duck, she picks it up and walks it over—which obviously we caught on video, her picking it up and walking away—she says after she exits the camera view, she places it on a trash can to prevent this dog from getting it. That's the end of her involvement, she says."

Sigler said attempts to substantiate her story have so far been unsuccessful: the camera doesn’t show a dog or pick up audio of a dog barking, police didn’t receive a call for a loose, aggressive dog at the cemetery, nor did the local dog warden’s office.

The toy duck wasn’t found in or near a trash can, but instead along the roadway of the cemetery.

“It appeared that maybe somebody had thrown it out the window,” said Sigler, who said the duck looked different when it was found than the weathered toy that’s been placed on the grave for at least the last three years. “It was apparent that somebody had washed it, because it was nice and bright and fluffy.”

Shade has been charged with petty theft, which carries a possible penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Sigler said she was supposed to return to the police station Thursday to speak with him, but didn’t show up.

“I ended up getting a phone call from an attorney saying that she wouldn’t be in and that if I had any questions, to ask him,” he said. “She’ll be required to show up in court on May 15.”

Sigler said Shade is from the neighbouring city of Mansfield but that his department had contact with her in the past: Twice in 1993 for felony passing bad cheques and misdemeanor bad cheques, and several counts of felony grand theft in 1996 in Ashland County.

He said mental illness wasn’t noted as a factor in the past reports, but that there’s always a possibility.

“I didn’t get to speak with her, but … if there is a mental illness factor, there’s at least the ability to function and recognize right from wrong and take action at least as much as she did to retain an attorney.”

Shade’s personal Facebook account has since been “locked down,” according to Sigler, who saw photos of solar lights that she’d placed at her own loved ones grave sites at a different cemetery and “other things similar to what was stolen” when the profile was still public. Sigler said those photographs are still under investigation.

For now, he said the family is relieved to have a lead into the thefts that have been causing them pain for the last few years. Sigler said the goal of posting the video to Facebook was to deter future thefts and let the thief know it wouldn’t be tolerated—a goal that’s been reached “and then some” because of the attention it’s received.

“I’d had this camera out since 2012,” said Sigler. “I would pull my video and have to review it, and I would watch mom go out and put the things at the grave site, and every time she leans down and kisses the grave, it just was heart-wrenching to watch her have to do that. But then for somebody to steal from it …

“It wasn’t about the money; it was the point of wanting some assurance that mom can go out and put one of the solar night lights out for her son and a little toy or two, and we just wanted to accomplish that for her. As far as the criminal charge goes, it’s not even about an arrest as much as sending the message—not only to Frieda but to anybody else—we don’t want that to be a thought in anybody’s mind, let alone somebody acting on it.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It wasn't about the money; it was the point of wanting some assurance that mom can go out and put one of the solar night lights out for her son and a little toy or two, and we just wanted to accomplish that for her. As far as the criminal charge goes, it's not even about an arrest as much as sending the message—not only to Frieda but to anybody else—we don't want that to be a thought in anybody's mind, let alone somebody acting on it."