UPDATE: A woman was arrested last week in the case, according to The Dallas Morning News. Kalynn Homfeld, 41, has been charged with theft from a human corpse and could face up to two years in jail if she's convicted.
A social media manhunt is on for a woman in Texas who swiped a ring right off a deceased grandmother's finger in a funeral home — even though the jewelry was plastic.
Surveillance camera video shows a woman walking in after a visitation service at the Sunset Funeral Home in Odessa Friday, stealing a ring from 88-year-old Lois Hicks' left hand, according to a local news site.
“I can’t believe someone would be that low,” Hicks' daughter Vel McKee told the outlet.
"I hope they catch her.”
The theft is a crime, but the woman in the video may not have known that the ring was a fake.
“It’s being investigated, even though the ring was a $10 plastic ring,” Odessa police Cpl. Steve LeSueur told USA Today.
“Theft of a corpse, regardless of whether it’s $5 or $5,000 is still an automatic felony.”
Hicks' granddaughter Brooke Vaughan Burns posted an angry message to Facebook on Saturday, along with surveillance footage and a photo of the ring itself in an attempt to identify the robber.
"As if my grandmother passing away hasn't been hard enough on my entire family now some low life thief went into the funeral home yesterday around 5:40pm and stole the ring off her finger," she wrote.
People on social media responded in kind.
A Saturday post on a local "stolen stuff" group had over 23,000 shares as of publication. The poster added the make and model of the woman's car, and one commenter shared a surveillance video shot of the vehicle itself.
Another commenter suggested the thief seemed to know what she was after, advising police to find out if Hicks was in a care home so they could check employees.
The funeral home told KWES that type of crime had never happened before.
It's unclear if those responding on Facebook know the ring isn't real, and whether or not that would change their reaction.
But the family is still upset. Granddaughter Brandi Carrasco told KWES she wanted the community to pray for the robber.
"A lot of people are trying to step in, investigate, and find this woman who obviously is a very troubled soul."
For more on the story, you can watch the video above.
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