Thieves have repeatedly targeted a town's two cemeteries to steal irreplaceable Victorian stonework.
Wivenhoe Town council is now urging people to help them trace who is responsible - even though nothing can be done to replace the pieces already lost.
Town clerk Antoinette Stinson said yet more coping stones - small pieces that look like mini roofs on the top of a wall - have been taken recently from the old cemetery, and now the new burial area is being hit.
She said the stones, worth about £12 each, date back to 1858 and are probably being taken by someone who is selling them on for a tidy profit to reclamation yards.
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