Premiership flag, stubby holders stolen from Lara’s man grave

A local family are seeing the worst side of humanity after Geelong Cats merch was allegedly stolen from their son’s grave after premiership win.

Des and Maureen Giles have had Geelong Cats memorabilia stolen from their son Paul's grave twice following the premiership win. Picture: David Smith

A Lara family has seen the “worst side of humanity” after Geelong Cats memorabilia was stolen from their son’s grave in two separate alleged thefts.

Des and Maureen Giles placed a premiership flag at the grave of their son Paul at Flinders Memorial Park cemetery the day after the Cats won the 2022 AFL grand final.

They said Paul’s uncles and cousins had also placed a Geelong Cats commemorative stubby holder on his grave shortly after to celebrate the win.

“We next went to his grave on his anniversary on October 22 and found the flag and the beer memorabilia missing,” Mr Giles said.

The family said they then replaced the flag, however when they went back in November it was gone again.

“We could see a few items had blown from other graves but they had landed close by … the flag we had put at Paul’s grave was nowhere to be seen,” Mr Giles said.

“We don’t believe it was blown away, we believe it was stolen.”

Paul, who was a big supporter of the Geelong Football Club, died at the age of 46 from a heart condition he had been battling for five years.

“Paul was a Geelong Cats member for 41 years,” he said.

“He had a great affinity for some the older players like Gary Ablett and (Paul) Chapman and more recently (Patrick) Dangerfield and (Joel) Selwood.”

Mr Giles and his wife Maureen attended the grand final in September this year and said it was “a bittersweet day” because their son wasn’t there to share it with them.

“That’s why we put the flag and other items down at his grave to try and include him into the celebrations … he would have been so excited,” Mr Giles said.

The family now go past Paul’s grave two to three times a week to check nothing else has been stolen.

Mr Giles said they contacted police after they discovered the flag was allegedly stolen the first time.

“They said there is a security company that does a lap of the cemetery once a day but police suggested we contact the cemetery trust,” he said.

“The cemetery trust said that there was nothing they could do about the situation and they advised us to not leave objects like that on Paul’s grave.”

Mr Giles said him, his wife and their family have been left “extremely upset and disappointed” following the alleged thefts.

“It just makes you wonder how these people could stoop so low as to steal from cemeteries,” he said.

Originally published as Premiership flag, stubby holders stolen from Lara’s man grave