A Pittsburgh funeral house director is going through fees after prosecutors stated he threw out the our bodies of hundreds of pets and gave house owners the ashes of alternative animals.
Seventy-year-old Patrick Vereb, the landlord of Vereb Funeral House and Eternity Puppy Memorial, is accused of stealing greater than $650,000 from over 6,500 shoppers who paid for puppy burial and cremation services and products between 2021 and 2024, the Pennsylvania Place of work of Legal professional Basic introduced on Monday.
Funeral director accused of throwing pets in landfill
Via about 20 veterinary practices and companies, Vereb accrued masses of hundreds of greenbacks from puppy house owners who had been promised a personal cremation for his or her puppy, prosecutors stated. However as a substitute of appearing the services and products, investigators stated Vereb threw lots of the pets out at a landfill, giving shoppers the ashes of alternative unknown animals.
Tiffany Mantzouridis told KDKA-TV there have been a number of pink flags when she was once an intern at Vereb Funeral House. She stated the pets’ our bodies had been saved in rubbish luggage on most sensible of freezers and there have been discrepancies in recordkeeping.
“He would take the ashes again from the crematory, they usually come again in a large bag with plastic luggage with twist ties on them that experience the steel tag twisted onto them. After which, for some unknown explanation why, would take that bag into his rental, shut the door, fiddle with the ashes, and they might all come again and zip lock baggies with out a tags,” stated Mantzouridis.
A lady whose cat was once cremated via Vereb’s trade stated she has a zip-close bag of ashes, however there is not any crematory tag, leaving her to surprise whose stays she if truth be told has. She known as the allegations “hectic,” a sentiment echoed by way of Pennsylvania Legal professional Basic Dave Sunday.
“This situation is hectic, and can reason devastation and heartache for plenty of Pennsylvanians,” Sunday stated in a press unencumber. “Our pets are participants of our households, and this defendant betrayed and agonized puppy house owners who entrusted him to offer dignified services and products for his or her loved cats and canine. I commend our investigative crew for a complete overview of voluminous information which exposed this long-running trend of robbery and deception.”
Who’re the sufferers?
The state has launched a website that attainable sufferers are inspired to make use of. Along with vets, prosecutors stated Vereb additionally discovered sufferers via walk-in and direct-pay purchasers of Eternity Puppy Memorial. The lawyer basic’s administrative center says it has known sufferers from Allegheny, Armstrong, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
The Pennsylvania Legal professional Basic’s Place of work is calling attainable sufferers from 2021 via 2024 to fill out a sort on-line.
Consistent with the administrative center’s web page, the next vets and companies had been impacted: Inexpensive Care, All About Pets, All the time Compassionate, Imperial Animal Medical institution, Kapr Funeral House, Kiski Valley Animal Medical institution, Ok-Vet, Loyalhanna Animal Medical institution, Meadowlands, Plum Animal Medical institution, River Valley, Dr. Mary Ann Bender, Puppy Haven Puppy Cemetery, Frankie’s Buddies, Sable Kennels, Little Creek Farm, Golden Mile Animal Medical institution, Greengate Animal Medical institution, Salem Animal Medical institution and Monongahela Animal Medical institution.
Vereb is going through legal counts of robbery by way of deception, receiving stolen assets and misleading trade practices. He surrendered Monday afternoon and was once arraigned at the fees ahead of he was once launched on his personal recognizance.
