Home renovations unearth cemetery

GREELEY, Colo., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A married couple in Colorado got a shock while renovating their home last month when they discovered dozens of gravestones on their property.

Sergio Perez of Greeley said when he and his wife Victoria decided to fix up their new home's backyard, they were stunned to find the grave markers since they didn't have any reason to think the home was built on a cemetery, the Rocky Mountain News reported Sunday.

Perez said he unearthed some of the items thinking they were simple paving stones and was understandably surprised to find names and dates inscribed on them. After uncovering 47 of the gravestones, including that of a young girl, Perez admitted to not being able to sleep as soundly in his new home.

"Man, the first couple of nights after we found the stones, I slept with one eye open," he said. "Y'know, just in the case that little girl came to get me for moving her marker."

The couple later found out that the home's previous owner was a caretaker who only had used the grave markers as landscaping decorations, the newspaper said.