A South Amboy woman says that burglars stole human ashes belonging to her late uncle.

Jamie Stratton says that her aunt, 76-year-old Liz Liposky lived in the two-family home for years and always felt safe there. But the home was burglarized on Oct. 30. Some jewelry and her uncle’s ashes were taken.

"What I saw was like a disaster. Her bedroom was literally torn upside down. The dressers were…strewn throughout the bedroom. And my Uncle's shrine…was completely disarrayed and the box was gone,” Stratton says.

Stratton says that her aunt had been away for several days visiting her daughter. She says that it was mostly jewelry that was stolen – including her first wedding band set with her husband Mike, whom she was married to for 49 years.

“There is some sentimental value to things, but the main thing is his ashes,” Stratton says.

Stratton says that her aunt was devastated when Mike died of cancer in 2011.

"Now it's like she's a mess again. She just said, ‘You know, it's like having him completely gone again’ and there's nothing that she can do,” says Stratton.

Stratton says it was clear that her uncle's remains were not a jewelry box. Her aunt did not put them in an urn, instead she kept the box from the funeral home and put it within a wooden box.

"On top of there was a teddy bear that looked like a Naval teddy bear. He was in the Navy. And some pictures and you could obviously tell,” she says.

Stratton says that the family just wants to ashes back.

"We don't want to get you in trouble…Bring my uncle back to his final resting place with his wife,” she says.

Stratton says that whoever stole the ashes can leave them in several places including a mailbox or the doorstep to a church so that they can be found by the family.

South Amboy police are investigating.