Outraged octogenarian fined for stone tipping

An 82-year-old man in the southern Swedish town of Hässleholm has been fined after flying into a rage and tipping over two gravestones in the local cemetery.

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The local authorities had decided to take down all the gravestones in the town’s cemetery in November last year as a precaution until they could be properly supported, according to the local Kristianstadsbladet daily.

Despite the authorities having sent out information about the decision to the community, it soon became clear that not everyone had got the message. The octogenarian, who became incensed when he saw the stones being brought down, started tipping stones over by himself.

Cemetery staff approached him and told him to stop, but the man told them to go “somewhere distinctly warmer”, according to the paper.

Before he was finally stopped, the elderly man had managed to tip over two gravestones, seriously damaging the plinth on one of them.

He was later charged with disturbing the peace of the dead (brott mot griftefrid), according to Kristianstadsbladet.

This charge usually carries a sentence of two years in prison in Sweden but the offended octogenarian was instead sentenced to pay a fine of 11,000 kronor ($1,535).

The Local/rm
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