It’s happened many times over the years: a bouquet of flowers, a framed photo, or other remembrances placed at the headstone of a loved one, disappears. How those items vanish can be attributed to a variety of reasons, not all of them nefarious, according to local officials. But the City of Washington has recently taken a step to prevent visitors to Oakdale Cemetery from walking away with someone else’s belongings.

“From time to time we have issues with non-immediate family members taking arrangements off of gravesites and the immediate family members want to know what happened,” Public Works Director Allen Lewis said. “Less frequently than that, we have somebody who removes things to repurpose them.”

At Monday night’s city council meeting, the decision was made to limit those allowed to retrieve items from the gravesites of those buried in Oakdale to immediate family. Anyone else seeking to retrieve items must deliver written permission from the immediate family to the cemetery attendant.

“If you want someone else to go out and take something off, you would need to provide in writing to the cemetery staff that another person will be taking items off,” Washington City Manager Brian Alligood said during the meeting.

Lt. William Chrismon, spokesman for the Washington Police Department, said there’s no indication that there is ongoing theft at Oakdale Cemetery. Rather, he said there are several reasons why things may disappear: wind blows items away from graves, which are later picked up and disposed of by staff; stands for wreaths are reclaimed by florists or funeral homes; other family members retrieve items. But the issue has prompted calls to police.

“We have had people call with concerns, but didn’t want to file a report, because they thought flowers were missing and thought they might have been stolen, but they’re not sure,” Chrismon said.

With the amendment to city code, all that’s required is that permission from the immediate family be on record at the cemetery, according to officials.

“It could be as simple as an email or a handwritten note — just something simple that we’ve got on file that the folks have been given permission to do this,” Lewis said.