Chicago police said they arrested two men accused of stealing 89 metal funeral urns and a metal funeral plaque they allegedly planned to sell as scrap.

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Police spokesman John Mirabelli said the men were arrested at 8 a.m. Monday after a 911 caller reported a burglary in progress at a three-floor apartment building on the city's South Side, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

Mirabelli said officers arrived to find the men loading the urns and the plaque, which had been defaced to obscure its inscription, into a sport-utility vehicle parked behind the building.

The spokesman said the urns and plaque would have fetched $8,900 to $44,500 from a metal recycler.

Police said charges against the men are pending and investigators are working to determine from where the items were stolen.