Man stole human ashes thinking they were cocaine

Now that's just Bizarre

An East Nashville man was arrested after he allegedly stole a box full of human ashes that his family said he more than likely believed was a bag full of cocaine. "William thought it was drugs, he thought he'd done found him a box of cocaine is what he thought," explained the man's grandmother, Wanda Allen.

According to a police affidavit, William "Billy" Cantrell took an XBox from his neighbor along with a small box last week. His grandmother said the 28-year-old brought both of the items back to her house but she believes he was not sober at the time of the incident.

"If he gets to drinking and doing drugs he's out there. He needs help. There needs to be more to it than putting him in jail," she said. Allen said the original tie was still on the bag of human ashes and believes her grandson never opened the bag. "On the top of it, it had a white piece of paper taped over it with date of birth, date of death, name and the funeral home," she added.

The ashes belonged to a neighbor, Steven Medley, and the remains were those of Medley's mother. "They just made it sounds like he's a bad, terrible person broke in this house and stole this woman's ashes. I'm not saying he's not guilty but he didn't know what he was stealing," his mother Kathy said about the incident. Cantrell is being held on an aggravated burglary charge.