Desperate for Cash, People Sell Grave Sites

When she got sick, Debbie Jenkins lost her job, both her houses, and burned through her savings. Living in an unheated garage and still unable to pay rent, she discovered her last remaining asset: two cemetery plots. She posted them on Craigslist, declaring they “MUST SELL!!!” It’s an increasingly common story in recession-racked America, the Washington Post reports.

Internet grave resale sites like Plot Exchange or Grave Solutions say they’ve gotten a big increase in listings, and cemeteries say many more people are asking if they can sell their plots back. “We usually hear, ‘I’m selling because I hate that son of a gun and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be buried next to” him, says a specialist on one site. “Now we’re hearing, ‘I’m losing my house.’” (More cemetery stories.)