Veterans' gravestones desecrated in 2 Rhode Island towns

RHODE ISLAND (WABC) -- Gravestones of veterans were desecrated in two different Rhode Island towns just days before Americans celebrate their freedom and thank veterans for their sacrifices.

A former caretaker at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter named Kevin Maynard plead guilty to stealing 150 granite gravestones. According to police, he used them to make a floor for his shed and

garage.

Veteran Anthony DeQuattro, president of Operation Stand Down, says this is just an example of the poor

treatment veterans are given.

"It's total disrespect to veterans," he said. "We fight the battle every day, and all we get is a lot of bureaucracy and a lot of disrespect."

No one answered the door at Maynard's home, but other community members had plenty to say about what he admitted to doing.

"I can't believe that anyone would do that," Exeter resident Kristine Mahone said. "It's such a sacred thing, and to take those home and use it for your own personal use is unforgivable."

The other act of vandalism happened at St. Joseph's Cemetery in West Warrick, where Robert Haney and Michael Gilligan are facing felony charges for allegeldy stealing 29 bronze markers worth nearly $23,000.

"Things they have, their freedoms," DeQuattro said. "When they sit down at that table every night to eat with their families, the roof over their head in this country that we live in, that it was because someone paid the ultimate sacrifice for them."