Victim of stolen car asks thieves to return father’s ashes

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – A woman’s car was stolen right out of her driveway with something irreplaceable inside, her fathers ashes.

A crime Angel Godfrey never expected happened right outside her front door.

“I never thought it would be me. Never,” said Godfrey.

Sunday morning, Godfrey noticed her dark blue 2020 Kia Sorento was no longer in her driveway at the Anchor Mobile Home Park on Fairforest Road in Spartanburg County.

“The car was gone so we decided to make sure it wasn’t repossessed or anything like that,” Godfrey said. “We ended up calling the police, they said no it’s not been towed nothing like that it is gone.”

A neighbor’s surveillance video shows the car pulling out of the driveway and hitting Godfrey’s husband’s work truck.

“[The video] shows pretty significant damage to the backside of the car, which will have orange paint on it from hitting the other vehicle,” Godfrey said.

Godfrey said, aside from the financial burden, something money cannot replace is gone.

“It didn’t even hit me that the ashes were gone until my oldest daughter, she said, ‘Mom, what about your dad’s ashes?'”

Godfrey said she always keeps her dad’s ashes in a hidden spot in her car.

“He goes wherever I go. We drive to Michigan, we drive everywhere. My dad’s just been there and I say that is probably why I never wrecked in my life. I had that guardian of protection over me,” Godfrey added. “I am trying to recover my father’s ashes more than anything in the world. It’s the only thing I have left. He committed suicide when I was 10 years old. That’s the only thing I have of him.”

Godfrey added she hopes the thieves are caught so this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I want my dad’s ashes back but, most of all, you need to serve the time for what you did because my husband works very hard for what he does and what he gives us for me to be able to stay at home with the kids, he provides for us and for someone to come and take it,” Godfrey said.

The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said they are investigating the car theft.

Godfrey said she found items thrown out of the car including her husband’s work uniform, tools and some children’s clothes and shoes.

We are told the family is in the process of moving.

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