BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. -- Flowers left in memory of the dead lay scattered about the grounds of Boynton Memorial Cemetery on Tuesday.

Sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, thieves made off with more than $100,000 worth of brass urns.

"They're attached to a chain and they're set into the headstones that are flat on the ground, so these vases were pulled out of the headstones," Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said.

Slater said there were 350 stolen urns, each valued at about $300.

Boynton Beach police said they don't know why the vases were stolen, but scrap brass fetches about $1.25 per pound, and each urn weighs about 15 to 20 pounds.

"There have been two others," Slater said. "One was in West Palm Beach and one was west of Lake Worth."

At the cemetery near Lake Worth, more than 500 brass urns were stolen.

Many scrap yards require documentation authorizing the sale of such materials, so police said they hope whoever stole them can be caught trying to sell them.

"To commit a theft and desecrate a headstone -- someone's final resting place -- is pretty despicable," Slater said.