The Hauraki District Council posted photos of damage to graves at the Waihi Cemetery on Friday. Photo: Supplied/ Stuff
More than a dozen graves in the RSA section of Waihi Cemetery have been damaged by vandals, the second time the cemetery has been desecrated since November.
Locals took to social media to vent their anger at the perpetrators over the weekend after the Hauraki District Council posted photos of the damage on its Facebook page on Friday.
"It's hard to find the words to convey the disbelief, distress and anger this shameful act of vandalism at the Waihi Cemetery will cause to the families affected, our staff, who take pride in maintaining this place of rest, and the families who visit to pay their respects," the post read.
"While we'll work quickly to gather up and save what we can, and identify the families affected, we wanted to let the community know in case you have a precious memento you'd like to remove to keep safe while we investigate this distressing event," the council said.
Hauraki mayor Toby Adams said he was made aware of the damage on Thursday, and felt for families having to go through the distress of having a family member's grave desecrated.
"Sadly, it's not the first time it's happened either.
"Bronze plaques were stolen from the same part of the cemetery in November last year."
Adams said he thought it could be thieves stealing bronze plaques for scrap metal or "some low lives who are not quite with it doing mindless damage".
He said the situation was a "crying shame" and there was no need for senseless vandalism of veterans' resting places.
One woman said she recognised her grandfather's headstone had been damaged.
"This makes me so angry and unbelievably hurt, even more so because I, myself am now a soldier and to see this blatant disrespect for our fallen is appalling."
Another woman's father was also buried there.
"That's my dad. He was in the Second World War fighting for our country. These ones have no respect. Feeling so sad," she said.
Adams said the council would work with families whose graves had been damaged to fix them "in a respectful way".
He said he had read many of the comments made on Facebook, and wanted to respond to people who wanted security cameras installed.
"It does not matter how many cameras you put in, you'll never stop this sort of thing and they may not have caught anything.
"We don't want to live in a world where everything is constantly monitored," he said.
* This story originally appeared on Stuff.