Salvation Army receives donated urn filled with ashes

PORTSMOUTH, NH (AP) — A Salvation Army thrift store in New Hampshire received an urn apparently filled with cremated remains.

The Portsmouth Herald reported the urn was donated last week. It’s bronze in color and is engraved “Richard L. Pettengill 1929-1981.”

The store is holding onto the urn in an effort to return it to the deceased’s relatives.

Portsmouth police Lt. Michael Maloney told the newspaper it’s not a crime to donate an urn with ashes but called it “odd.”

Police said the urn and ashes are considered private property and whoever owned them could do with them what they wish.

An obituary ran in the pages of the Herald’s sister paper for a Richard L. Pettengill who died in 1981. He was described as a brick mason who served in the Army.