Anyone who has been through a burglary knows how violating it is ... but this is taking the biscuit.

Phillip McMullen of Citronelle, Alabama in the US, came home from visiting friends to a ransacked house and the ashes of his dead wife thrown around the room.

He also added that it "looked like they tried to smoke some of them".

The ashes were kept in a plastic box rather than a traditional urn so he believed the culprits thought they were drugs.

"I guess they figured out this stuff ain't worth smoking, so they threw it up underneath one of my toolboxes," he said.

A police report says the intruder stole 15 items including a generator, chainsaw, knife and fishing rods and reels.

But Mr McMullen said the worst thing was the desecration of the ashes of his wife of 22 years.

"It's hard to put in words, it makes me want to fight again, and I don't like to fight," said the Vietnam veteran.