A grieving family has slammed bungling council workers who buried their dead father in the wrong GRAVE.
Karoly Reiter, 76, died of a heart attack on March 24 and was laid to rest last Wednesday.
But his family were left fuming when grave diggers at Wilford Hill Cemetery, Notts., phoned them the following day and told them they had made a mistake.
Mr Reiter’s body has been buried in the wrong place ON TOP of another man who had died in the 1960s in a plot they thought was empty.
The father-of-four and grandad of seven – who was known as Charlie – will now have to be exhumed and reburied.
Daughter Maria Brown, 52, criticised blundering cemetery staff for the botched burial which has left her family traumatised.
Maria, from Nottingham, said: “You see things like this on TV – but you just don’t think things like this happen in real life.
“It’s an absolute disgrace.
“To put a whole family through this – to lay someone to rest and then be told this has happened.
“We will have to watch him come up again, it’s unbelievable.
“He was a kind, loving man who would do anything for anyone.
“If he knew I’d say he’d be turning in his grave, but he’s not really in one.”
Mr Reiter was back visiting relatives in his native Hungary last month when he suffered a huge heart attack and died.
His devastated family arranged for him to be brought back to Nottingham – where he had lived most of his life – for a funeral and burial service.
Maria’s husband Tony, 54, added: “We just could not believe it when we got the call about what had happened.
“It is something which I have never heard of happening before.
“We had just put him to rest and now the whole process is starting again.”
Cemetery staff have since apologised and said checks were made at the time, which showed the plot was empty.
Nottingham City Council’s head of parks and open spaces, Eddie Curry, said: “We are very sorry for the upset caused for the family.
“Our records appeared to show the plot which Mr Reiter was buried in was empty, and inspection of the ground, lack of headstone and lack of visits to the site seemed to support this.
“Even when excavations took place there was still no indication of previous burial.
“Our error was noticed, however, when we came to update historical hand-written ledgers with Mr Reiter’s burial, which indicated that someone had been buried lower down in that plot in the 1960.”
Mr Reiter was born in Hungary but moved to Nottingham in 1956, when he fled fighting in his homeland during the uprising against the former Soviet regime there.
Before retiring he worked for Raleigh bicycles and later as a milkman.
