He was a graveyard thief who stole from the dead. He would walk to the cemetery grounds looking for anything to sell on the open market: cemetery accoutrements, wreaths, flags, small trinkets, and solid bronze flower vases. He was casing the cemetery grounds, observing, and examining the layout to see what he could steal — robbing graves to satisfy his greed.
The cemetery burial site was under the supervision of a union shop, controlled by The United Grave Diggers Union: AFL-CIO USA. Workers from this union worked from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. It was late on Friday afternoon when a cadaver arrived, delivered after 4 p.m. The union workers did not want to break their contract and assumed that they could complete the interment on Monday. Nevertheless, they lowered the casket six feet. Now the site was an open grave.
Someone, somehow, had dropped a diamond ring, and it lay on top of the wooden casket. As the deceitful cemetery thief roamed the ground like a mad dog, he noticed an open grave and peeped inside. To his surprise he was overjoyed and delighted with a desire to retrieve the diamond ring.
So he jumped down into the six-foot grave to retrieve the ring. He was a heavy man, so his two feet pierced the wooden casket. Splintered! He was bleeding profusely and could not extricate himself from this trap. As he bled, he became lightheaded, weak, and this rendered him unconscious. Monday morning, he was dead!
Clenched in his fist was a diamond ring.
