Jackson's Oxford Journal (quoted in Marilyn Yurdan's The Dark Side of Oxford) reports on one occasion where grave-robbers were only narrowly thwarted in their attempt to steal the recently buried bodies of a woman and a young child from the churchyard of St. Mary Magdalen Church in the centre of Oxford.

The would-be grave-robbers were disturbed while digging into the fresh graves and were forced to abandon their attempt and flee. As a precautionary measure, the bodies were dug up by church authorities and stored in the church for the next few days just in case the resurrection men returned and tried to finish the job!