Woman loses grandmother's ashes in car theft
A Norcross woman who had just driven from a memorial service for her grandmother lost her car -- and her grandmother's ashes -- to a thief.
Ebony Simpson stopped to shop for dinner in a crowded Kroger on Singleton Road in Norcross. She left her cart untended in the aisle briefly to get taco shells, taking her wallet but leaving her keys.
A few minutes later, when she collected her bags at the register, she realized the keys were missing. When she got outside, her car was gone, too, along with the urn in the trunk that carried the ashes.
"My grandmother's ashes were in an urn in a box," Simpson told the AJC Tuesday. "I can replace everything else. I cannot replace my grandmother's ashes."
The theft occurred the afternoon of April 23, according to an incident report obtained from the Gwinnett County Police.
The car was not found in the intervening week. Indeed, as of Tuesday, no detective had been assigned the case, department spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith said. Simpson's car is among about a hundred taken in any given month.
Last year, there were 1,503 car thefts reported in Gwinnett. In 2009, there were 1,828.
Simpson, 28, praised the responding officer, who went with her to her apartment and searched it to make sure the thief hadn't entered with her key. But she's frustrated with the lack of progress in the case.
She hopes someone spots the car -- a black, two-door Nissan Altima from 2008 -- and calls the cops. And she hopes someone returns the dark wooden urn with a pointed cap that contained her grandmother's remains. Simpson said her grandmother was like a mother to her, and that she had planned to keep the ashes on display at home.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
