The three men stole the urns from a house near Orlando in Florida, under the bizarre misaprehension that they contained crushed medical pills.
In fact the urns held the cremated ashes of the house-owner’s father, and the ashes of her two Great Dane dogs.
The burglars told police that they only found out what they’d snorted were human and canine remains when they read a report about their crime in the local newspaper.
They admitted a string of robberies in the area to police, and the ringleader of the gang was sentenced this week to nine years in prison.