When 10-year-old Brittany Benseman lost her father Tony 15 months ago, she put butterfly, dragonfly and hummingbird-shaped solar-powered lights on his grave so "Daddy wouldn't be lonely in the dark".
However, when Mr Benseman's widow Stephanie visited his Upper Wairau Cemetery grave last week, she discovered that the lights, as well as flowers, were missing.
Items had also disappeared from the graves of her husband's niece and his sisters.
The theft of the lights has left Mrs Benseman and her daughter "absolutely devastated".
"It's devastating to think that someone would stoop so low as to steal from the graves," she said.
Brittany had placed the set of lights on the grave after her father's sudden death.
"They illuminated and changed colour at night. She put them up there so her daddy wouldn't be lonely in the dark. She was quite devastated to find out someone had stolen it. Needless to say, I'm quite angry as well."
The affected graves were in different places throughout the cemetery. Mrs Benseman believes that whoever took the items was "scouring" the grave sites.
She did not know of anyone else who may have had items taken.
When she noticed the lights missing, Mrs Benseman reported the incident to the police, who told her there was little they could do without physical evidence.
Mrs Benseman has since replaced the lights but has glued them to the headstone.
She had also planned to place other mementoes which reminded her of her husband and his love of heavy machinery.
"I was going to put out a little digger and scraper made of metal, but I don't feel I can do that now, because they won't survive there."
Mrs Benseman visits the cemetery two or three times a week and up to four times a day during summer to tend her husband's grave.
"[It's] the only place that I really do get an opportunity to sit down and relax. Nothing else matters when I go up there. It's only me and my husband."
She is urging anyone who has noticed anything missing from the cemetery to report it to the police or the cemetery's board of trustees.
"It's a sacred place and it's sacred to the people that are left behind."
The cemetery is administered by a trust, but no one from the trust could be contacted this morning.
Marlborough District Council reserves and amenities officer Nic Crous said thefts occasionally occurred from council cemeteries, but there was little the council could do about this.
"Removal of anything in a cemetery by members of the public is an offence by law, but it is unfortunately not possible to police a cemetery."
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