Thieves break into tomb of President Garfield

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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio ? Someone broke into the President James A. Garfield Monument in Lakeview Cemetery and stole commemorative spoons, police reports say.

The burglars on Wednesday shattered a window to the monument and resting place of the 20th U.S. president to get inside the building just off Mayfield Road.

Garfield is the only U.S. president to have his casket on full display and is near the glass case where the spoons were stolen.

Reports say a cemetery worker discovered about two dozen commemorative demitasse and teaspoons stolen from the monument and called police.

Reports say police believe the person broke in through a broken window. Pieces of shattered glass were scattered inside and outside the monument, reports say.

Police noted the lock on the case that stored the commemorative spoons was missing.

Police collected cigarette butts, a T-shirt and an empty bottle of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey outside the building, reports say. Police also found a fingerprint on the glass case. Investigators will try to find DNA on the items and test them to find a suspect, reports say.

Cemetery employees told police they fired an employee they day before that had ?displayed extreme opposite behavior? than usual, according to the report.

The 180-foot tall monument erected in 1890 features the only casket of a U.S. President on full display. Garfield?s wife, Lucretia, and their daughter Mary and son-in-law Joseph Brown, are also interred in the monument.

Garfield was born in what is now Moreland Hills on Nov. 19, 1831. He was elected President in 1880, winning by only 10,000 votes.

He was shot in a train station in Washington D.C. on July 2, 1881, and died two months later.

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