A Calgary woman is pleading for the return of her father’s ashes after they were stolen from her northwest house earlier this week.
Heather Hamilton is in the process of moving to a new home in the community of Mount Pleasant and had left some unpacked boxes in her locked garage before going to sleep. She woke up on Thursday morning to find the garage had been broken into.
“Everything was dumped out all over the floor and scattered everywhere,” she told Global News. “It was out into the alley and down the alley. Just everywhere. Like, they just rummaged through to find whatever they could.”
WATCH: Calgarian Heather Hamilton describes the moment she realized her father’s ashes had been stolen.
It was then that Hamilton realized the box containing her father’s urn was empty.
“It had an antique jewelry box in it with a really old watch that my dad bought in Belgium maybe 60 years ago for my grandmother, and some other antique pieces of jewelry, plus my wedding rings,” Hamilton explained. “With my father’s ashes… it’s the one thing that… it’s totally irreplaceable.”
“It has no value to anyone else but me… I’m devastated”
Hamilton’s father passed away 14 years ago.
“Losing the urn with his ashes, I feel like I just lost him all over again,” she said.
“It can’t be replaced. There’s no insurance, there’s no money, there’s nothing that anybody could do or give me to replace that.”
Hamilton believes the urn was stolen from her home (located in the area of 18 Avenue N.W. and 4 Street N.W.) on Thursday between 12:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 403-266-1234 or contact Crime Stoppers.