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3 | Friday, F ebruary 1 0 , 2 0 1 7 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | w w w .insideH A LT O N .com Numerous memorial plaques stolen from benches by Nathan Howes Oakville Beaver Staff An Oakville woman is calling for the Province to tighten regulations on scrap metal yards after her father' s commemorative plaque was stolen. Jeannine Pitt-Clark got news of the missing memorial after her mother received a phone call from the Town of Oakville on Tuesday, Feb. 7 -- the anniversary of her father^ death. The plaque, in memory of her late father, Jack Pitt, who died Feb. 7, 2001, was installed near the end of that year or in early 2002. She isn't the only one who' s been contacted -- Flalton police are investigating the reported thefts of 12 memorial plaques from Lakeside Park and George' s Square, while the Town confirmed 16 were stolen - including plaques removed from St. Mary' s Cemetery The theft of the 12 plaques reported to police occurred during two different time periods, in November 2016 and January 2017, and the investigation is ongoing, according to police. Pitt-Clarkfe family was devastated upon learning of the stolen plaque, she said. "She (mother) was very, very upset because the notice came through on the anniversary of my father' s death. It was upsetting for all of us. The fact somebody would do this is absolutely repugnant and reprehensible," said Pitt-Clark. "It devastated my mother. She' s very frail. It caused a pre-existing health condition to erupt. I'm just one of 16 families that this has affected." Jack Pitt Jenny Pitt-Clark sits on the bench overlooking Lake Ontario, from which the memorial bronze plaque to her late father - Jack Pitt, a sailing enthusiast who died of cancer in 2001 - was stolen. | Graham Paine/Metroland The Town is aware of the missing memorial bench plaques and previously notified Flalton police, according to a statement emailed to the Oakville Beaver Thursday, Feb. 9. Replacement plaques ordered by the Town will be installed with "tamper-proof screws," as soon as they arrive, as a way to prevent more thefts in the future. "We are contacting affected families and notifying them of our plans to replace the plaques immediately," it said. When Pitt-Clark and her family visited the Lakeside Park bench, after the plaque was stolen, she said the affected memorials were hidden from security cameras, while other in view of roads or streets had remained untouched. "It was obviously a very calculated theft," PittClark said. In a letter to the editor, published in yesterday' s (Feb. 9) Oakville Beaver, Pitt-Clark said Lakeside Park was where her father took her mother on their first date and where the family gathered for picnics and quiet time. "My father died on Feb. 7 (2001) and the bench is a place where we gather, remember him and look out over the lake that he loved," said Pitt-Clark The theft of her father' s memorial plaque, which she believes may have been sold to a scrap metal recycler, caused the Oakville woman to search for any Ontario legislature on related producers and salvagers. When she couldn't locate what she was looking for, she reached out to Oakville MPP and Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn' s office for assistance. "In Ontario, there is sort of a patchwork of municipal laws, but nothing sort of province wide. That' s a concern for me because you can have a municipal law, (but) somebody will just take the scrap metal to the next jurisdiction," said Pitt-Clark She wants to meet with Flynn to ask for his help in possibly creating a provincial private member' s bill to govern scrap metal producers, requiring documentation of what is brought in, similar to one in Alberta. Pitt-Clark noted his office is currently looking into current laws that could be helpful. She will follow up with it next week to try to schedule a meeting with Flynn. "It' s almost an impossible crime to police. You see Anyone on p.13 B u y in g ? S e llin g ? FOREST GROVE A cad em yo fA rtsan dT ech n o lo g y PRESCHOOL R e -fin a n c in g ? Call us fo r a q u o te a t Jameson Glas & D. Kevin Haxell 9 0 5 - 8 4 5 - 0 7 6 7 e x t. 2 2 2 /2 2 3 AROUND THE WORLD IN 5 DAYS! 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