BUTLER TOWNSHIP — A local woman is pleading for thieves to have a heart and return her purse that has her late husband’s ashes in it.
Dotti Foust filed a police report Friday after her purse was stolen while she went grocery shopping at Walmart in Butler Township Thursday night.
She went in to buy a few groceries, but the trip to buy food turned into a nightmare.
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“I’m hoping someone will have a change of heart and bring it back to me, just turn it in,” Foust said.
Foust said she put her purse in the front child seat of a grocery cart and didn’t realize it was missing until she was at checkout and ready to pay.
“I didn’t leave my cart, only time was when I was in the freezer,” Foust said.
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Foust said she had a sinking feeling when she realized her purse was gone. The thieves apparently ran out of Walmart and almost immediately used her cards to make big purchases at Sam’s Club right next door. Her cash and credit losses add up to more than $1,800, but one item in her purse was priceless.
“My husband has passed and I carry a little pouch with him, everywhere I go,” Foust said. “That’s what I want, I just want his ashes back, that’s all I want.”
Foust said she began dating her husband when she was just 15. They were married for 48 years before his death.
Now her strongest connection to him is missing in her purse.
“I just don’t want him to be in a trash can somewhere,” Foust said. “I just feel like it’s a helpless situation.”
Butler Township police are hopeful they can identify and catch the thieves with the help of cameras inside Sam’s Club that might have caught their illegal purchases. Foust just wants her husband’s ashes back.
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