Police catch serial grave robber who holds ashes for ransom

Pictured is a message left on a robbed grave that reads "send your phone number to my email if you want these ashes back," along with contact information. The gravestone was partly wrapped in plastic, perhaps for fears that rain would wash away the message. Photo: voc.com.cn

The ancestral grave of a family surnamed Xie outside Changsha, Hunan province in 2013. Photo: voc.com.cn

Police from Changsha, Hunan province finally caught up with a grave robber who had stolen urns and left his contact information at the tomb in order to collect thousands in ransom from relatives, reported voc.com.cn on May 27.

Liu Tao (pseudonym), 33 of Hebei province, was arrested at Wenzhou Railway Station, Zhejiang Province on May 6 after committing a string of more than 30 grave robberies since 2012.

Authorities were tipped off after a family surnamed Xie reported the pilfering of their ancestral grave on Tianjing mountain, outside Changsha on November 18, 2013.

Following the instructions left on the gravestone, the family emailed their phone number to Liu's address. A few days later, Liu called demanding 600,000 yuan ($96,180) for the stolen urn.

After rounds of bargaining with Liu, the family managed to whittle down the amount to 50,000 yuan ($8,015).

The Xie family then transferred 10,000 yuan ($1,603) to Liu's bank account in February.

What Liu didn't know was the family had also alerted local police, who were able to get an image of Liu's face from the surveillance camera of an ATM machine as he withdrew the sum.

Liu, who is now in criminal detention, confessed to the crime, explaining that he targeted the Xie family after discovering them to be "the wealthiest" in town through an online search. He reportedly spent eight hours digging up the urn.