Cenotaph plaque with names ground off turns up at scrap yard

The owner of a Fredericton scrap yard says he unknowingly bought a plaque that appears to have been taken from a cenotaph in Fredericton on Oct. 17, but wasn't aware of its origin until he saw a photograph of the stolen plaque circulating on Twitter.

Best Metals owner Iaan Brown said the plaque from the cenotaph in Barkers Point wasn't recognizable at the time it was purchased.

"We didn't realize what he had bought," said Brown. "He grinded the wording completely off of it."

"All that was left was what you could see left of a torch on one side of it, so we really didn't know what we had until we were able to see a picture of the original plaque on Twitter and the news and could tell that the torch that was there kind of matched up," Brown said.

At that point, Brown contacted Fredericton police, who now have possession of the plaque.

The man told them the plaque was from an old house he had bought that he was renovating and they were not suspicious.

Brass sells for $1.85 a pound. The man who sold the 60-pound plaque for $110 subsequently showed up at Best Metals again with more plaques for sale.

Recognizing the man from his previous visit, employee Derick Wilson took a photograph of the man, and Brown took a photograph of his car and licence plate.

"He must have realized something was up because he threw his plaques into his trunk and took off before we could do anything."

Wilson said he "didn't really get a good look" at the plaques the man had with him the second time.

"But it was more brass plaques," he said. "It was probably more of the cenotaphs, I assume, or something like that."

Fredericton police are also investigating the theft of three brass plaques from the New Brunswick Cenotaph in downtown Fredericton.

The office manager of AIM Fredericton scrap metal says her scrapyard also bought some plaques recently. Tara Estabrooks said she was off at the time, but when she saw word circulating about stolen plaques, she had her workers dig them out and she turned the pieces over to police.

New plaques ordered

Minister of Tourism, Heritage and Culture Bill Fraser called a news conference at the cenotaph Tuesday morning to announce new plaques had been ordered for both of the targeted memorials.

"Our hope is to have them replaced by Remembrance Day," said Fraser. "We're not sure that that's possible, but we're going to do our very best."

Fraser said the cost to replace them would run between $5,000 - $7,000.  He sad the federal department of Veterans' Affairs called him Tuesday afternoon and hoped to offer financial assistance.

Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside called the thefts "a disgrace."

"This is not just a Fredericton issue. This is an issue that deals with people who made the ultimate sacrifice that we may be free today," said Woodside.

"But the fact is, it was addressed, it was addressed very quickly.

"I'm sure that the veterans will be very appreciative of the fact that their fallen colleagues will have those names back up on the cenotaph where they belong here and in Barkers Point."

Local veterans charity Atlantic Maple Leaf had started a campaign to raise money to replace the plaques.

Legion Branch 4 now hopes the money will go towards a cenotaph fund that could be used to improve security at the sites.

The 'texting your donation' fund had raised  $1860 at last count, with the New Brunswick Carpenters Union matching donations, bringing that total to $3,720.