Following Ozzy Osbourne’s death on July 22nd, thousands of fans flocked to the Black Sabbath Bench in Birmingham, England to leave flowers, gifts, cards, and other items in tribute to the late legendary musician.
Now, a man is in custody for allegedly stealing some of the flowers left by mourning fans.
The West Midlands Police arrested 45-year-old Parviz Jafari on August 2nd after they were alerted to a theft on Broad Street, where the bench is located.
Jafari is being charged with the theft of flowers and is set to appear in court on September 3rd.
Last week, the city of Birmingham began to collect the tributes left at the bench with the plan of handing it all over to the Osbourne family.
The items were gathered and organized at a secret location, where each item is being individually photographed. The photos will then be turned into a book that will be given to Ozzy’s wife Sharon and his children.
According to the BBC, the bouquets of flowers will be mulched and spread on Osbourne’s grave – which is located on the grounds of his home in Buckinghamshire, England.
The photos taken of all the tributes are also set to be turned into a digital and physical archive of the site. “There’ll be a historical record. There’s a forever memorial, if you will, for the love people had for Ozzy,” Paul Barnett from Central BID – who is in charge of the operation – told BBC.
“The amount of different little unique items people have sent or written, it just shows how much love people had for Ozzy,” he added. “I think partly that’s because he was such a unique individual and people loved him because he could always just be himself. That meant a lot of people felt they could just be themselves, and you see that written time and time again with the tributes. It’s overwhelming, it’s beautiful.”
“This is what the family want. They’ve expressed they want to make sure there’s a record of everything and all that love’s recorded,” Barnett said. “There’s just so much love and affection, he was an absolute legend. I think it’s really important everything’s recorded, that none of the things people had given were left unseen.”
