"A gravedigger was arrested...on the charge of stealing potatoes out of the lot." (Image by Viktor Vasnetsov.)

Gravediggers stealing potatoes is a problem that still plagues us today, but it was positively rampant in 1900, as is evidenced by this article from the December 29, 1900 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“A week ago John Miskofsky, 27 tears old, of 126 Vienna avenue, a gravedigger, was arrested on the complaint of Theodore Paltz of Hegeman and William avenues, on the charge of stealing potatoes out of the lot. After the first arraignment Miskofsky was paroled, but failed to appear in court on the day set for the examination. Magistrate Worth then instructed Court Officer Albert N. Shuttleworth to arrest him. Yesterday the officer went to Miskofsky’s home and was told by his wife that he was at work in the Evergreen Cemetery. Shuttleworth went, as directed, to the cemetery, and finally located his man at the bottom of a grave that he was digging. He was placed under arrest and was locked up in the Ralph avenue station.

Miskofsky told the officer that he had paid Paltz $1.35 for the potatoes and thought he would not have to return to the court. The officer so explained the case to Magistrate Teale this morning in the Gates avenue court, where the prisoner was again arraigned, but he was held for examination until Wednesday, and went to jail in default of $200 bail.”