A grieving daughter has spoken of her family’s devastation after a thief removed her father’s memorial stone and tried to sell it on Facebook.
Allan Strachan listed Andrew George Rae’s memorial for sale on the ‘deeside Scotland buy swap sell’ Facebook page, stating that he was “open to offers” for what he claimed was a “Celtic stone”.
The 59-year-old also vandalised the precious tribute decorated with Rae family heirlooms by gouging out the late Aboyne dad’s belt buckle embedded in the stone, asking in another post: “Is it white gold or silver?”
When Mr Rae’s daughter Joanne Rae, 30, saw one of Strachan’s social media posts, she contacted him to ask for the stone’s return, but he quickly turned nasty and refused.
Strachan later landed in the dock for his crime after police raided his home and returned the stone to the Aberdeenshire family, but Miss Rae said her family couldn’t afford to repair the damage he inflicted.
‘We don’t feel the same way about the stone’
“We don’t feel the same way about the stone since it was removed and vandalised,” Miss Rae told The Press and Journal.
Her late father, known locally as Andy, was a council employee who dug graves, cut grass and ploughed snow for a living.
“Everybody used to love him for how much he helped them,” Miss Rae said, recalling her dad as an “old-school hippy” who spent his childhood frequently visiting Devil’s Punchbowl in Braemar and going on to work in Aberdeen Zoo at Hazlehead Park.
Miss Rae described the first moment she became aware that Strachan had stolen the beloved memorial.
“He took a picture of the stone sitting pride of place in his living room, asking if anybody knew anything about it,” she said.
“He’s tampered with this memorial stone and violated the memories of my dad that it represents. My mum’s still in pieces about it.
“My mum and dad were together for 30 years,” she added.
After Mr Rae died at the age of 55 on August 12 2013, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered on the land between Aboyne Cemetery and Aboyne Castle.
Miss Rae explained: “He got cremated because he didn’t want to be stuck in one place. We put him in the field where we used to walk the dogs together.”
Years before his death, her father visited a local quarry where he came across a stone that had been eroded by the River Dee into the shape of a teardrop.
“He took it away with him and it stayed in my mum’s garden for many years. When he died, we turned it into a memorial stone for him,” said Miss Rae.
“It was decorated with a kilt pin that belonged to my grandad, my granny’s necklace, and one of my dad’s belt buckles which featured greyhounds, as we kept greyhounds.
“My dad was known by everybody locally. That’s why the laird allowed us to put the stone where we did.”
She had last visited her father’s memorial on Father’s Day last year when everything was in order.
But on January 10 this year, Miss Rae was shocked to see the stone for sale online.
In a Facebook post, Strachan claimed he found the stone “on my travels”.
‘U call police … Let’s go legal’
The woman commented on the post and messaged Strachan directly, explaining that it was her father’s memorial stone and asking him to return it.
During Strachan’s prosecution, fiscal depute Andrew McMann told the court: “The accused asked where to put it back.”
However, the situation quickly turned sour, with Strachan then telling the distraught woman in a message: “U call police if you want … Let’s go legal.”
When police attended Strachan’s address and explained why they were there, he replied: “Is that the Facebook thing?”
He then stated he would not permit the police to enter without a warrant.
Strachan tried to step back inside his home but when officers grabbed hold of him he began to resist arrest, struggled violently and pushed one officer against a wall and put his hand on his throat.
Eventually, Strachan was brought under control and arrested and officers found the memorial stone in his living room.
Strachan, of Michael Fair Court, Old Mart Road, Aboyne, pled guilty to theft by finding and to resisting, obstructing or hindering police.
Sheriff Andrew Miller ordered Strachan to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and to be supervised for a year.
However, Miss Rae criticised the sheriff’s decision to spare Strachan from a jail sentence, describing him as “a horrible human being”.
She added: “Considering he has mobility issues, he’ll probably spend 120 hours doing something he’ll enjoy – that’s not punishment.”
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