Cops: Toppling tombstone traps vandal
MERRILLVILLE: M'ville man faces criminal charges; $8,400 in damage done at cemetery
BY DEBORAH LAVERTY
dlaverty@nwitimes.com
219.662.5324



MERRILLVILLE | A night of drinking and tombstone tipping ended for a 22-year-old Merrillville man when one of the monuments came crashing down on his legs, police said.

Police said a security guard found Michael David Schreiber passed out and pinned under a 1,000-pound headstone shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday at Calumet Park Cemetery.

Schreiber, who faces charges of criminal trespassing, criminal mischief and public intoxication, was transported to Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus in Merrillville.
Both his legs were broken during the incident, and he was scheduled to undergo surgery on one of his legs, Merrillville patrol Officer Ray Smith said.

Smith said it took five officers to remove the heavy headstone from Schreiber's body, and the family name at the top of the headstone left its mark on the suspect, he said.

"The letter V (in the family name) left an imprint on Schreiber's thigh," Smith said.

In addition to facing criminal charges, Schreiber also faces possible restitution to the cemetery for the 14 headstones he toppled over and -- in some cases -- damaged, Police Chief Nicholas Bravos said. Estimated damage to the headstones totalled about $8,400, Bravos said.

Schreiber told police he and a companion had been drinking at Beaver's Bar until about 4 a.m. before going to the cemetery, 2305 W. 73rd Ave.

Schreiber estimated he had been trapped under the headstone for more than three hours before police arrived, Bravos said. The suspect would not divulge his companion's name to police, Bravos said.

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So there you have it, don't mess with the dead, unless you want 2 broken legs and a nice new brand on your thigh.

Serves him right,
the only thing that would of made it better is
if the spirits would had messed with him while he was pinned under the tombstone

First all Great Article Luna, thanks for sending that in ! Yes indeed the dead have taught this young man a valuable lesson ! One I don't think he will soon forget. (LMAS)

I agree with you SammyTerry it does serve him right ! I am so sick of seeing all the vandalism going
on in all the cemeteries around our area too! It was just on the news last night, that ALL the brass vases have been stolen from Highland Cemetery in South Bend, and they have been turning them into the the scrap yards for a mere $10.00 .. the families paid about $375.00 to have them put in. My mother's was stolen at another cemetery, and it just makes me sick.
Oh and one of the recycling places got busted and are facing some pretty stiff fines, as they well should.
Cemeteries are sacred places, and should be treated with respect.
When I was a kid I use to love to walk through the cemeteries at night, but I never once thought of knocking over headstones, or being disrespectful. Ok I guess I have ranted here long enough, great topic Luna !

Those that don't respect the Dead probably don't have much respect for the living either

Or themselves as far as that goes.

I, like "K La Rose" (and I bet a few others of you out here) used to eeriely enjoy going to Cemetery's at night .
In about 1976 or 77(I remember this because my cousin "Jr" just got a car)
"Jr" and me would go to some of the ungated graveyards, usually around midnight,
and I would bring my cassette recorder (one of those old rectangular shaped one speaker apparatus's)
and about that time it was just getting popular about EVP's, and when I heard about it on a Radio show I had to go try it.
I never really caught anything except one time at this cemetery, I don't remember the name pf it but,
across the street is a Tavern called the "Hill Top Tavern"
(and just right out the back door of this tavern is a small very old.....Graveyard)
Well at this graveyard across the street from the tavern, we entered announced ourselves, asked forgiveness for disturbing them and said we only want to visit and talk with them and help if we can.
Armed with only flash lights, which I had two of one with a red lens and one with a green lens
and both of us had a cross on us (just in case there was a Vampire I guess..hah)
I found a fairly fresh grave ( that I was oddly drawn to) of a young girl that would have been around my age,
and started recording. I asked questions like "are you here..can you hear me...are you lonely?" and stuff like that.
I leave the recorder there and join my cousin who's walking around "Investigating"
and we were careful to step Around the graves, and just a few plots over from where I was recording we found a tombstone that looked to have been pushed over to where the top of it was about 3 feet from the ground.
We was like "aww man, this ain't right, lets try to straighten it up"
(not thinking that if we were to get caught they'd think we did it)
It was one of those big double head tombstones and I thought there's no way just us two can move this thing
We both grab it from the back and pull with all our might and it seemed that it wasn't as heavy as i thought it would be.
We got it pretty close to being straight and took a big sigh of relief and then tried to give it a big push and tug and much to our surprise it didn't move.
We looked around a bit more and there was a mist fog starting roll through which added to the eeriness so we decided it was time to go ( we were there about 30 - 45 minuets anyway and the tape I had in the recorder was only 30 min per side)
We get back home a little after 1am and listen to the recording.
We could clearly hear me asking the questions and then scuffling as I walked away, we could hear some traffic noise from the street about 20 yards from where the recorder was at followed by silence then a few small ruffling sounds and more silence whooshing sounds probably made by the wind.
Then a few min. later there was this low almost growling sound which freaked us out until I thought it kind of sounded like a Harley Davidson, then a few more min. of silence and then we heard IT. A kind of high pitch moan that started out low then got a little louder, followed by a kind of "sigh ". After hearing this our eyes were as big as quarters, our expressions were that of fear and wonder as we determined that was maybe about the time we were trying to straighten the tombstone. I listen to the tape several more times later that day
(after I got some sleep) After reviewing it again I thought the Moan could have been a distant Police siren although we didn't remember hearing one while we were out there.(sorry for the length of this but I thought some might enjoy hearing about this)

Wow creepy! I live near Rookwood Cemetery and I'm told it's the largest cemetery in the Southern hemisphere. I'm dying (no pun intended) to go check it out, but I don't want to go alone, and my hubby doesn't want to go with me. He's worried about bringing something home with us. I grew up near a small cemetery in Maine that I used to walk through from time to time when I was a kid, so cemeterys hold more facination than fear for me. I'm trying to bring him around. Rookwood is the biggest cemetery I've ever seen, and has some really old areas in it. If I do get to go I'm definitely going to bring a camera and tape recorder!

yea that is creepy!!! , my husband just recently found a little abandoned cemetary just off the beatin path here in merrit island florida, its called crooked mile cemetary, we googled it and its reportley haunted, we were thinkiing about venturing down there and taking sum pix, if we do ill keep yall updated!

Well Ladies I would like to do some fun investigating again,
but there's no way in hell my wife would go late at night .Hah...and that's really the only time it's fun.
And be sure to take some kind of recorder, never know what you might get.

oh, and a red lens is good on a flashlight because the beam isn't as noticeable from a distance,
Plus if most people see a red ball of light floating around a graveyard
there probably not going to say any thing to anybody let alone enter the place...haha

I do feel pity for you sammy, your wife holds you from doing so many things you can't go ghost hunting, you'd make a great ghost hunter =D

Oh how I would love to be able to tag along with you to Rockwood Cemetery
I do so enjoy going to the really old ones. I hope you will be able to talk your hubby
into going there with you. Tell him to buy a sage stick, and use it before going in &
after, he should be just fine

haha...thanks for the pat on the back Glam! and as for my wife,
why do think in" corrupted wishes " I wished for a Beautiful alien Princes to come and take me away!
Haha..just kidding' She doesnt keep me from doing what I want,
it's just that I would like to do these things with my woman (and all the girls go aww how sweet)
But I have thought about contacting some of the local Paranormal Teams her in Indy,
there's a couple that's suppose to be pretty good one is a TAPS family member.

That made me laugh out loud
Pure genius!

Having been charged with being intoxicated, I guess it could be said that the spirits messed with his head before hand.

Haha...good point Mr. Goat....

(damnit you beat me to it, I'm going for it anyways)

Yepper they did, but he was too drunk to notice.

Poor ghosts going; "Woohoohoo... Aaahaahaa... Eeeeeee... Hey!!"
"Ah forget it Morty, the guy's deaddrunk", "Do the face, that usually gets 'em"
"Why? he's pasted out","Do it anyways", "Allright then 'WAAAH!'", "see nuttin'"
"Hey kid! both yer legs are trapped under a tomstone", "You should be screaming in agony"
"You think he's..?", "Nah, we should've seen him by now"
"Damn kids, can't hold their liquor", "Now what?", "leave 'em", "Scare some dogs"
"We already did that", " Well there ain't much else Jebediah", "The only fun thing lies under
a tombstone, to drunk to even notice his legs broke", "How the hell do you know that?"
"I'm a ghost, ghosts can move thru matter", "Yeah, yeah", " Besides that thing must weigh a ton"
"Poor kid", "Serves him right", "Yeah, but still...", "They prolly find 'em in the morning,he'll be fine"
"Lets scare those dogs then", "I'm getting too old for this sh*t", "You can't get old, your dead"
"Stuff it Morty!", "You stuff it..."

So, they'd walk on into that eerie night, arguing about what has become of the world since their passing...

Hahaha...thats pretty good Zo'....
missed you around here lately..
(wait, just got an mental image of your girlfriend..bound and gagged...umm, you should probably let her go now..)

Sshhh! the cops came by 'cuz the neighbours smelled a foul smell.
So I said;"Yes officer, I'll clean the litterbox, right away"
"What muffled thumping sound?", "Oh, that muffled thumping sound"
"Yeah, crazy kids..."

I do enjoy your sense of humor, Z!
That argument sounded just like....my grandparents! lol


It is sad and disgraceful that people would go into a cemetery and deface the final resting place of deceased person.
I was always taught that a burial site was sacred and should be kept clean of debris and trash.
But that's the more idiotic of the human race for ya.... anything for a cheap thrill.
May the next stone they topple have graveyard crabs!