Weird and Whacky News

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Would You Trade Your Mom For Potato Chips?

Jason L. Miller / Staff Writer / 2005-06-10


When Marcelle and Harriet went to visit their mother's inurned ashes at a Houston mausoleum, they made a grave discovery. Mom's ashes had been replaced with a can of sour cream and onion potato chips.


On June 10, 2004, Marcell Lieberman and Harriet Lieberman Mellow were understandably incensed once they opened the cedar chest in the niche that used to hold the remains of their mother, Vivian Shulman Lieberman.

Maybe it was a message from beyond for them to visit more often. The chips had been visible in the display case for at least six months.

"We have been devastated," Marcelle Lieberman said. "We hope we will be able to find her remains before we die, to give us closure of some sort." To date, the ashes are still missing.

So steamed about the incident, the Lieberman sisters are taking on anybody remotely connected. When the chips are down, they sue everybody in sight.

Their synagogue where the funeral was conducted, Congregation Beth Israel, the cremators, Levy Funeral Directors, and the owners of the mausoleum that held the ashes, Schlitzberger's Family Craft Monumental Services, have all been named in the lawsuit filed by Marcell and Harriet.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from all three parties for intentionally inflicting emotional distress. It also claims that Levy Funeral Directors failed to ensure that Vivian Lieberman's ashes were in a secure place.

All three defendants deny any liability.

"It is obviously very upsetting to the family and to all three of the defendants," said Neal Manne, lawyer for Beth Israel. "But a lawsuit is about whether there is any legal responsibility, and Congregation Beth Israel did not do anything wrong."

Greg Bolton, spokesman for Service Corporation International, the parent company of Levy, says the chain of responsibility ends with mausoleum delivery.

"We fulfilled the family's wishes by arranging for the cremation and delivering the remains to the custody of the mausoleum," he said. "We had no involvement or knowledge of anything that happened after that."

Dianne Schlitzberger, co-owner of the mausoleum accused of failing to close and lock the niche, insists that none of the employees have a key to it. Further, she says the company wouldn't ruin their reputation by losing something so valuable.

At least the niche was locked after the theft, as a locksmith was called to reopen it. Police have the can of chips in custody and are looking for any crumb of evidence.

However the thief was able to pull off the caper, one could say he ‘urned" it.

http://www.webpronews.com/business/topbusiness/wpn-54-20050610WouldYouTradeYourMomForPotatoChips.htm...