MACON, Ga. — Terri Yeomans loves spending her days at Rose Hill Cemetery. She said the cemetery is a sanctuary for her.
This past weekend, her sanctuary was damaged. A suspect was caught on camera messing with the gate. The person broke the gate's arm. There was also a car in the footage.
The cemetery is offering a $1,000 reward for whoever catches the vandals.
Yeomans said she is upset vandalism is a problem.
"I just think it's horrible, I don't know what could be done about people like that," Yeomans said, "And I don't think there's anything that can be done so except pray for them, and we'll just keep plugging along trying to keep it safe, and I pray that can happen one day."
Preservationist Joey Fernandez said break-ins happen often. He said he's upset this is the reality for the historic site.
"It's really sad to know that people have no respect for the past, and they just want to destroy it," Fernandez said.
He said the cemetery recently purchased the most advanced camera system to help ensure less of this vandalism happens in the future.
"The cameras are really nice, optical cameras with optical zoom, 40 times the zoom of the human eye, so we'll be able to catch these people," he said.
He hopes to have the cameras installed within the next few months. He said it's just a matter of coordinating with the city to get the system ready to go.
He said another issue the cemetery has is people bringing candles in and spilling the wax on people's headstones. He said it is difficult to take off.