A British funeral director said today one of her colleagues was forced to hot-wire a hearse last year after a rival undertaker stole the keys during a funeral service.
Irene Jessop said the coffin of Patricia Thorburn was being carried out from the Salvation Army citadel in the English town of Middlesborough when staff members realized the keys had been stolen from the ignition of the vintage Rolls Royce hearse.
She said that the move had effectively trapped mourners in the parking lot outside the citadel because the hearse was blocking the exit. She said the theft was the work of rival undertaker David Wood, who was angry over her firm's alleged poaching of his customers.
"The worst thing to me is that it was a funeral director who did it," she said. "A funeral director acting against another funeral director."
She said one of her colleagues, Joel Kerr, tore off the dashboard from the 1968 vehicle and managed to hot-wire the engine, allowing the funeral cortege to make it to the town's cemetery.
"It was a very sad thing to see," Jessop said. "The family was extremely upset by it, but ... they were very, very understanding. The sad thing is that the funeral of their mother and wife will always be remembered for the wrong reasons."
David Wood pleaded guilty to one count of theft at Teesside Crown Court in Middlesborough yesterday.
He was due to be sentenced next month.