We've seen them take everything from the Harvey Milk plaque to a massive church bell to wire from BART tracks, but up metal thieves up in the old Gold Rush town of Martinez have unearthed a gross new low.

As KTVU reports, a hiker in the area first noticed that someone had broken in to two crypts on the grounds of the Saint Catherine of Siena Cemetery in Martinez. Caretaker Pete Carpenter, surveying the damage with the news team, pointed out that one of the old wooden coffins that was left open by the grave robbers belonged to the grandmother of a family still living in Martinez.

Anyhow, Carpenter seems pretty distraught over the grotesque crimes. Aside from apparently getting their jollies off by digging through a 140-year-old cemetery, it seems the thieves only got a couple of brass handles, taken from the coffins, during the crime. Neighbors, meanwhile, are blaming the town's biggest tragedy since those beaver murders on either bored youth or the local homeless population looking for crimes of opportunity.

This also isn't the first case of thieves going after cemeteries. Earlier this year thieves stole $85,000 worth of brass fixtures from a large cemetery in Colma. Although, in that case, the graves themselves were left untouched.

Previously: All metal thievery coverage on SFist.
[KTVU]