FAIRVIEW, OR (KPTV) -
When a thief broke into a car at Salish Ponds Park in Fairview, they made off with a lot more than just some cash. They stole an urn out of the back seat.
Courtney Perry says she took her four children to the park to feed the ducks and release balloons on her late mother's birthday. She was planning to drive to her sister's place afterwards and have dinner, but instead drove home to file a police report.
Someone used a crack window to break into the car and steal a wallet from the center console, two hubcaps and a silver urn containing her mother's ashes, according to Perry.
"My kids had never met my mom, so that was the only piece of her we had left," Perry said. "I don't know what to do."
Hours later, someone used one of the stolen credit cards at the Spaceage gas station on 161st and Glisan in Portland, according to Perry.
The cards are now canceled. The hubcaps were only plastic. The silver urn is worth less than $100 to a scrap metal yard or pawn shop.
It's what's inside that matters to Perry.
"I'm still going to celebrate tonight no matter what happens," Perry said. "No one is going to stop that."
The Perry family is planning to send pictures of the urn to local scrap yards. They hope someone will recognize it and save their mother's ashes.
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