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Man Arrested for Defacing 150 Cemetery Headstones Said He Wanted To Ward Off Evil Spirits

Deepak Sandhar Singh, 26, of Hayward, was arrested Friday after admitting to the mass vandalism, police said.

A Hayward man arrested on suspicion of at the Chapel of the Chimes cemetery last week told police he committed the crime to ward off evil spirits.

Deepak Sandhar Singh, 26, of Hayward, was arrested Friday on suspicion of felony vandalism after he admitted to police officers that he defaced the headstones with soybean oil, according to Cmdr. Ben Horner of the Union City Police Department.

The mass vandalism at Chapel of the Chimes Memorial Park, located at 33992 Mission Blvd. on the Hayward-Union City border, was reported Wednesday and was initially believed to be done with motor oil. Groundskeepers saw Singh moving flowers between the headstones at the time that the crime occurred, police said.

According to Horner, Singh told police that he purchased a two-gallon jug of soybean oil and planned to use it to ward off evil spirits. Singh believed the metal plates attached to the headstones “were evil” and needed to be purified.

Singh also left behind small plastic figures and pieces of ribbons and string at some gravesites, Horner said.

Cemetery staff were still cleaning the headstones when the arrest was reported Friday. The cleaning costs were estimated to be more than $5,000, police said.

Anyone with additional information about the crime is asked to call UCPD at 510-471-1365. Anonymous tips can also be left by calling 510-675-5207 or emailing tips@unioncity.org.

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Peggy July 16, 2012 at 07:18 pm
soybean oil?
Zade July 16, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Ofcourse, soybean oil. Clearly he was performing estrogen therapy on the evil spirits.
Johnny C. July 17, 2012 at 10:39 am
Poor fellow has mental issues that need to be addressed!
Geoff Burton July 17, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I hope it worked
Geoff Burton July 17, 2012 at 12:36 pm
5,000 to clean up soybean oil some ribbons and plastic figures that seems a bit much
melissa July 17, 2012 at 12:43 pm
aww he thought he was doing a good deed. poor guy, he was just a little crazy is all.
Zinn July 17, 2012 at 03:05 pm
Whew, this guy is in deep need of Thorazine...
Mona Taplin July 17, 2012 at 04:01 pm
Soybean oil poured on stone monuments can make a terrible mess. It would have been much worse if it hadn't been discovered so quickly. It still seems like a pretty high cost for clean up.
Tamerlane July 17, 2012 at 09:42 pm
They cleaned up the oil? Oh that's just dandy...now the evil spirits will be back.
Geoff Burton July 18, 2012 at 02:58 am
Not a problem, it cost 5,000 because they did the clean up with Holy water (the good stuff ain't cheap ).
Geoff Burton July 18, 2012 at 03:02 am
I wonder if there will be a follow up on this story, I have several family member interred there including my father, and if this guys got an inside track on evil spirits moving in , well there goes the neighborhood.
EdwinT July 18, 2012 at 04:41 am
Hope he also gets charge with a hate crime. Had a Caucasian commited such a crime he also would have been charged with a hate crime. Oh, yeah. I'm not caucasian just a citizen looking for justice.
Allison July 18, 2012 at 08:26 am
Seriously? This is clearly not a hate crime. (Unless you consider specifically targeting 'metal plates' as a hate crime.) How would you even know a Caucasian would be charged with a hate crime if he committed the same actions as Mr. Singh? By even suggesting such a thing, you're unnecessarily perpetuating racism rather than innocently pursuing justice as you claim. Shame on you.
ElliottMD July 18, 2012 at 02:21 pm
I have seen this man walking around our neighbor hood a lot. Sometime he passes out flyers for the local pizza place for free food. I always thought thete was something a bit odd about him. Where was his family when all this was going on. Why was he not bring taken care of.
EdwinT July 19, 2012 at 08:46 am
Allison, when a non-Christian desecrates Christian headstones, he isn't doing it out of love. By his name we know that he is a Sihk. As far as "metal plates", the NAMEPLATES were put on the HEADSTONES to honor the persons buried there. I don't think that the love one of the people buried there those whose headstones were desecrated consider the name plates as just a piece of metal. These were not metal plates that were thrown away or just a pieces of junk metal.
It is the type of knee jerk attitude which you show that purpetuate acts of vandalism. Had a white man or Christian committed this type of vandalism on Sihk or Muslim graves, there would be Sikhs and Muslims in the streets demanding the perpetrators blood.
Allison July 19, 2012 at 07:06 pm
EdwinT, you have absolutely no idea as to what his motive for this crime was. I'm just saying that this isn't a hate crime, because he didn't specifically target one group of people. It's not like he said, "Hey, let me go desecrate the headstones of ONLY the Christians!" As stated by the article, he was specifically targeting the metal plates, which I believe, is not a category covered by the definition of a hate crime. (Hence, why I put metal plates in quotes. I was trying to illustrate just how ridiculous your hate crime accusation was.) I do understand the purpose of the nameplates and the significance of burial. I am in no way saying that this man did no wrong. Did I ever insist that he was innocent of vandalism? No. I just think that maybe you're the one with the knee-jerk attitude, and you're insane for wanting the charge of hate crime to be added in this situation. The clear consensus from the previous comments is that this man is mentally incompetent, not a person with malicious intent. The other point I wanted to make was that it was totally unnecessary to say, "Well, if another racial group committed the crime, then they would definitely suffer more severe consequences!" What's the point of that? Our justice system should only base their rulings on the facts at hand, not on what would happen if someone else committed the crime. All that matters is that Mr. Singh committed mass vandalism, not that Mr. Singh is a Sikh who committed vandalism.
ElliottMD July 19, 2012 at 11:13 pm
I saw this man back in our neighborhood today. He has his haircut and is wearing a mustache. I wonder just what happened to him and if anyone was able to really help him or if they just cleaned him up and sent him back out on the street again.
EdwinT July 21, 2012 at 06:50 am
Please, please, Allison. Open your eyes to the world of political correctness. A black man leads dozens of policemen on a chase. When apprehended he fights with the police. Tasers have no effect. The result? Millions of dollars lost in property damage. The man gets millions from the city and six policemen end up in jail. Everyone knows about jury nullification during the O.J. Simpson trial. Either find O.J. innocent or we burn the city. Hate crime? Nah!
A black prostitute accuses members of a la crosse team of rape after a failed attempt to try to extort money from. The "Reverands" Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton incited destructive demonstrations. A police chief running for office in a heavily black area arrests the atheletes. After more than a million dollars spent by the accused parents it was proven through DNA evidence that she lied. Example :Our esteemed president and the afore mentioned "reverends" calls for the arrest of George Zimmerman without knowing the fact of the incident. If the jury finds Mr. Zimmerman innocent look for cities to burn. Also, there was a case several months ago where a white teen-ager was beaten to death by two blacks. I could go on and on. Under your thinking, none of the above riots or allegations were not "hate crimes." When have you seen Jackson or Sharpton cry out for justice when the "victims" were not black? This goes on and on. Hate crimes are only committed by white men never by a minority.
Allison July 22, 2012 at 04:55 am
Your defense makes absolutely no sense. I don't even understand what point you're trying to get across. "Under your thinking, none of the above riots or allegations were not 'hate crimes.'" Does that mean that they were all hate crimes according to my logic? Don't even get me started on "Hate crimes are only committed by white men never by a minority". The incoherence of your argument is almost laughable.
EdwinT July 22, 2012 at 06:05 pm
Laugh all you want. Ninety percent of the news media is biased and much of what you see and hear from it has been heavily edited. Why? Because there are people who keep their heads buried in the sand. They react with knee jerk emotions instead of their brains. The Twin Towers would still be standing today had saner heads prevailed, but no, that would be profiling and watching our borders would be discrimination. Those nineteen animals who killed almost four thousand, according to you, didn't do it out of hate but for love of their religion.
The (White) idiot in Colorado didn't kill twelve people and wound dozens because he wanted to test out his guns. What he did was out of hate, not racial, but hate! All crimes committed are in some way hate crimes, be it caused by greed, envy or jealous. I never believed in the term or concepts of "hate crimes" but since you liberal bleeding hearts only use that term when it acts as a placebo to bring to the ends what you consider justifies the means, don't be selective. Again all crimes are done with some kind of hate. As far as me saying, ""Hate crimes are only committed by White men never by a minority," I was being satirical. To my knowledge I have never heard the liberals or their liberal news media report crimes by a minority against a White as a hate crime. Does that include you?
Allison July 23, 2012 at 01:20 am
I totally agree with how heavily the media is edited and biased. I just think we're disagreeing about Mr. Singh's motives for his crime. I was going by what was purely stated in this article, and refuse to assume the reasons as to why he did what he did. While you may be correct about his motives of hate, it is stated nowhere in this article. I was also using the legal definition of "hate crime" which is not just simply a crime that simply stems from hate of any sort. Maybe we should just agree to disagree.
Lovepreet Sandhar December 29, 2012 at 04:07 am
Ok here is the true story. He is mentally challenged and he has a hole in his brain. I know this because i'm his brother and i'm 13 years old He was found dead at 8-21-12 because he felt he did wrong. How can you blame a mentally challenged man you know it's just plain stupid. OK if he was your family member what would you say. So plz stop putting rude comments about him, he was a vary nice boy. He had a girlfriend and she left him and he loved her too much and he started t drink and one day comes he starts to act akward. That' when we knew he was going you know. HE never had a mother because she died giving birth to him. He has been alone his whole life soo plzzzz stop tese rude comments i beg you.
Lovepreet Sandhar December 29, 2012 at 04:12 am
Deepak Singh Sandhar
January 20, 1986 - September 22, 2012 Birth Region / Country :India Passed Away At : Hayward, , California, United States Occupation :Security Guard Funeral Service : Friday September 28, 2012, 1pm at Chapel of the Chimes Service for Deepak Sandhar will be on Friday, September 28, 2012 at 1pm here at Chapel of the Chimes, here in Hayward, California. And you guys say these things about him. If you don't bleave me here go here. http://hayward.chapelofthechimes.com/obituary/user/show/template?id=69135&print_preview=1 Let me tell you something about him. Ok here is the true story. He is mentally challenged and he has a hole in his brain. I know this because i'm his brother and i'm 13 years old He was found dead at 8-21-12 because he felt he did wrong. How can you blame a mentally challenged man you know it's just plain stupid. OK if he was your family member what would you say. So plz stop putting rude comments about him, he was a vary nice boy. He had a girlfriend and she left him and he loved her too much and he started t drink and one day comes he starts to act akward. That' when we knew he was going you know. HE never had a mother because she died giving birth to him. He has been alone his whole life soo plzzzz stop tese rude comments i beg you.

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