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Woman Says Thief Stole Mother's Ashes From Car

BROCKTON (CBS) – A heartbroken woman says a thief stole her late mother's ashes.

"I have had this pit in my stomach since it happened," said Carolyn Parker. "I feel like I'm in a bad dream. "

Parker lost her 71-year-old mother to breast cancer in July. This week, she says she feels as if she lost her all over again.

"Anything else that you could have taken is replaceable, but those were my mother's ashes," Parker said.

Tuesday morning, Parker went to her car in her Brockton driveway and discovered it had been ransacked.

"I noticed the white container was on the floor, the cover was missing and the contents inside of it were the only thing in my car that was missing," she said.

Sunglasses were left behind, change even, leaving Parker to draw only one possible conclusion.

"It must have been somebody who thought it was drugs," Parker said. "I mean, that's the only thing that I could think because maybe they were high on something."

Parker admits she made a mistake in leaving her car door unlocked, but the ashes were in her glove box for a reason.

"It was ashes that I had in my car so that when I wanted to go and spread them somewhere, I had them in my car. I spend a lot of time in my car, so why not have my mother in my car with me," she said.

Before the theft, Parker was able to spread some of the ashes at a memorial on the Vineyard. She lost her son a year and a half ago and had planned to have a necklace made with the remaining ashes of both her mother and her child.

"It hurts, I had plans for those ashes that's my mother that's all I have left," she said.

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