Pastor repossesses child's gravestone claiming parents did not pay in full
A pastor has repossessed a five-year-old boy's gravestone after he claimed the parents did not pay for it in full.
Jake Leatherman passed away on November 1, 2016, after a battle with leukaemia and his mother Crystal bought a grave marker adorned with his face at Woodlawn Memorial Garden in the US.
But when going to visit the stone, adorned with his face and handprint, she found it was gone and replaced with a dirt hole.
The manufacturer of the monument, Rev. J.C. Shoaf, said the family had paid for the stone, but requested a number of changes at an additional cost of US$2500, WBTV reported.
He said they did not pay, so he removed it "as leverage."
“He repossessed it, like it was a car,” Ms Leatherman told WBTV.
Ms Leatherman and her husband Wayne claim they were not told the changes would increase the cost.
Rev Shoaf has since said he felt bad about removing the gravestone.
“I hated to do it. I’m not heartless and I have had a child die, so I know how it feels. But what was I to do?” the 73-year-old said.
“I thought having (the marker) would give me some leverage. In hindsight, I should have just written it up as a bad debt.”
The Leatherman family have said they have hired a lawyer.
