HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - An employee at a funeral home has been accused of stealing dozens of granite slabs that were set to cover graves. The suspect allegedly stole more than 60 granite slabs.
Johan Albuquerque, 47, appeared before a judge, Thursday.
According to police, the stones were stolen from Fred Hunter Funeral Homes, which sparked a months-long investigation.
“You are being charged with grand theft between $20,000 but less than $100,000,” said a judge.
The funeral home began asking questions last September when the staff began complaining that there was a shortage of headstones.
After an audit, based on a police report, 62 stone slabs were missing, for a total of about $35,640.
Police said that Albuquerque was in charge of the slabs, and when management confronted him and told him they had surveillance video of him leaving the grounds with them, Albuquerque confessed to the theft.
Employees told police that they helped Albuquerque with loading the slabs onto his truck. When they asked him questions about the stones, Albuquerque threatened them with termination from the business as well as physically harming them if they told anyone.
Albuquerque was arrested and charged with grand theft.
The judge set Albuquerque’s bond to $5,000 and ordered him not to return to the funeral home or have any contact with the employees.
From the police report, Albuquerque was also in charge of the video surveillance. What led police and management to suspect Albuquerque was the video surveillance being shut off.
Albuquerque is being held at the Broward County Jail.
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