Tough Times: CO Embalmer Accused of Stealing Dead People’s Gold Teeth
- Posted on March 5, 2012 at 1:54pm by
Becket Adams
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Some things are still sacred, right?
Like, for instance, one would assume that a person entrusted with funeral preparations wouldn’t pull gold crowns from the bodies or go through cremation remains looking for gold teeth to pawn, right?
Apparently not.
“A Brighton man is accused of using his position as a contract embalmer in the Denver metro area to steal gold teeth from bodies and cremated remains and pawn them in Longmont and other cities,” according to Pierrette J. Shields of the Longmont Times-Call in Colorado.
Adrian David Kline, 43, has been indicted on eight counts “of providing false information to a pawn broker” and two counts “of providing false information to a secondhand dealer.”
Adrian David Kline
Although he denies it, Longmont police believe Kline was removing the gold crowns prior to embalming and removing the dental gold post-cremation.
The police were contacted after one Longmont pawnbroker thought it was “creepy” and “weird” that the same person kept coming in to pawn dental gold. One of the pawnbrokers was curious enough to ask Kline where he kept getting all of this dental gold.
His response?
Kline, also the father of eight children, said that the teeth were normally “just thrown away,” so he was retrieving them and was selling them to raise money for “children in need,” the Longmont Times-Call reports.
And apparently, he had been at it for quite some time — making decent money along the way.
“Police searched the store‘s records from July and found a photo of Kline’s driver’s license along with a baggie of 20 to 25 gold teeth,” Shields writes, “A search of his pawn history in the past three years revealed dozens of transactions worth thousands of dollars…”
Shields continues:
Kline spoke with investigators and said the home was throwing away the items and that they were not being returned to the families or used otherwise, “but he knew the dental gold had value.”
He said he waited for the box of items to be thrown away, retrieved it from the trash and “would then take the box home and sift through the remains, which consisted of screws, bone anchors, and other miscellaneous metal.“ He told investigators that the dental gold was difficult to recognize because it was covered in ”black crud.”
His wife told investigators that he bought a cleaning kit and gold testing kit and would meticulously clean the teeth for pawn. She said it did not yield much money, but it helped to pay the bills, according to reports. Kline said he was embarrassed at what he had to do to provide for his family, according to reports.
As mentioned in the above, Kline denies removing teeth directly from the bodies. But the funeral home owners told police that, after examining photos of the gold recycled, there was “no way that all of the gold in the photos had gone through the cremating process.”
Which begs the obvious questions: where did the gold come from and how did Kline get it?
(H/T: The Consumerist)
(Front-page photo source: Nj.com)
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Comments (39)
One Man Progressive Wrecking Crew
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 1:16amHe’s such a normal looking guy, I never would have expected psychotic behavior from his pic there…not.
I think the headline meant to read “gold TEEEEF” ;)
Report Post »ldaopines
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:06pmMy husband and I talked about this very thing around a month ago. At the time we wondered whether funeral homes could be harvesting gold and titanium both before and after cremation processes. Who’s to stop them? There will be lots of seniors with titanium hips/knees in the future. My understanding is that titanium doesn’t melt in that process. Where does it go?
Report Post »DividedWeFail
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:49pmTalk about stupid
He should have just collected the gold – melted it and KEPT IT until he had a large size and then DROVE out into different towns to sell it.
It is wrong to take it from a whole body or the body ashes but he had the perfect scam and he blew it. However, now everyone embalmer or crematorium is going to do this and you won’t know it. They are probably doing it now. This guy is an idiot.
Report Post »P8riot
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 6:38pmI guess you really can’t take it with you!
Report Post »DREDGE
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 5:08pmMaybe he is an archaeologist?????
Report Post »They have been robbing the dead for years!!!!
IAMINFIDEL
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:23pmWell, what good is it to have the gold languish in a grave?
Report Post »Bluebonnet
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:40pmHeck, my dentist (Oral Surgeon) has done this to me several times, until I got wise and told them
Report Post »before being numbed up, that I want my gold teeth. I forgot to ask first and their excuse is, “oh, I’ve already put them in the trash.”
Yeah? I used to work for an oral surgeon and he had a gallon jar almost full of gold teeth that he pulled.
So, don’t believe it if they say they threw them out. It isn’t pure gold (too soft) but has gold color.
SgtB
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:45pmThe old adage of waste not, want not comes to mind. I’m fairly sure that 100+ years ago, no family would bury their loved one with gold teeth in place. In fact, I‘m not so certain that burial services and preparation services weren’t paid for by allowing the person to keep the gold from the deceased’s teeth. I don’t know why when gold is 1500+ an ounce, why any family would not consider an ounce of gold tooth fillings as part of an inheritance.
Report Post »Virginia Rebel
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:10pmStealing? Stealing implies a victim. Who is the victim here? If it happened the way he said, then he would have no way of knowing which bodies the gold came from. And even if he took it out of bodies, would the family have been thrilled had presented it to them? I personally think it is a shame that the gold was just to be buried or thrown away. There is a limited supply in the world. What is the right way to handle this? Maybe inform the family that the gold is being removed, then take that much off of the astronomical burial bill? That would make sense. That way the family would get the money back that was put in the person’s mouth in the first place. Does any funeral home do that?
Report Post »Lucy Larue
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 5:14pmVIRGINIA REBEL,
Are you freaking kidding me? Filthy Lucre is OKAY?
Here’s the deal. If you ever deem to move your moral relativist derriere out of Virginia to see the sites…, I suggest the “HOLOCAUST MUSEUM” in Washington D.C. UGH!
“We have met the enemy and He is US”. POGO
Report Post »Disabledvet
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:52pmI don’t see a problem here unless the family asked for the gold, let him have it as a little extra income.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:36pmOne creepy mug shot…. That is for sure…
Report Post »ianmc002
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:18pmWould someone please tell Glenn and El Douchebo we are NOT a Democracy? Nor a Representative Democracy. We ARE a Republic…a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, or at least whats left of it.
Democracy= two foxes and a chicken deciding whats for dinner.
Democracy= the 51% voting to enslave the 49%
This can’t happen in a Republic because you have RIGHTS.
Yeah…I know wrong forum.
Report Post »OniKaze
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:22pmI wish everyone realized that…. Our country would be in a much better place if we all did…
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:56pmSo this is what Democracy looks like…2 men and 1 woman in a room voting on the criminality of rape….
Report Post »Truthmonster
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:10pmI see a bright future for him in the Obama administration. Probably the humanitarian czar.
Report Post »Bluebonnet
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:53pmHey, I‘ve heard the stories about what can go on in a funeral home and it’s worse than taking teeth.
Report Post »In fact, it makes taking out teeth seem tame.
alina.bolero
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:07pmWait a minute? He was plucking these out of the GARBAGE! These teeth would have just gone to the landfill. The owner/operators are the ones that should be prosecuted, for failing to return all of the results of cremation!
The guy should have melted them down first.
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:07pmSoros did it. He did not get in trouble.
Report Post »Mr.Fitnah
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:01pmNothing new here.
Report Post »Charybdis
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:59pmI guess people think they’re able to take it with them.
Report Post »9111315
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 6:13pmI don’t want my first stop in heaven to be at a dentist.
Report Post »matcotoolman
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:52pmi’ve always heard this to be pretty common practice in that industry. if people knew what was involved in the embalming process, I would think that pulling teeth would be very far down their list of things they found objectionable. if you want to find a truly victimless crime, this would have to be it.
Report Post »badswing
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:56pmstudents did the same thing in dental/medical school on cadavers.
Report Post »pickyourpoison
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:06pmBadswing, if you were caught taking anything from a cadaver at my school, you were kicked out.
Report Post »alivelyundertaker
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:41pmJust remember folks….there are bad eggs in all and EVERY position and profession all the way from your newsboy to the president of the United States. This … is NOT the norm.
Report Post »Broncobuster
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:40pmIsn’t this what being “Green” is all about ? Just being a good recycler .
Report Post »TexBork
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:27pmWow. Dude looks as mad as Michelle Obama.
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:16pmShocker – crooked employees related to funerals and everything that goes along with them!
Dude looks like Shep Smith …
Also, decent enough plan (not ethical or moral – need to add this for the obtuse among us), but poor execution.
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:09pmHumm. To me, he does not look like Shep Smith, one of my favorite people…class-act and a great sense of humor, and a big-big heart.
Report Post »This story does not surprise me and one wonders what really goes on in the funeral-homes…but as we know, there are exceptions of “creepy-dishonest-people” that work in all professions.
hauschild
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:55pmLook at his eyes – dead ringer for Shep.
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:11pmWe had a funeral home director, they would convince family members they needed to bury their loved one with necklaces and the like, if they didn’t have any, he would even sell them some. Then he would slip them off before he covered them up. Thought stuff like this was pretty common practice, certainly not national news worthy.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:03pmHe needed to burn down a rapper nightclub…he could have got all the gold ‘teef’ he could pull.
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:02pmGeesh, melt ‘em first maniac…if your going to be a monster, be a smart monster.
Report Post »JP4JOY
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:00pmHe probably worked at a concentration camp in a former life.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 1:57pmI guess he doesn’t get his gold and silver bullion from Goldline….
Report Post »neidermeyer
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 5:19pmMy mother is 80+ and has instructed me to make sure that I get her teeth and not the funeral home … This has been a common practice at funeral homes forever..
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