Grave Offense

"He would have laughed his head off," insisted one friend of the "Little Tramp's" family. But in truth, just about everyone in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey thought that the kidnaping was the darkest of black humor at best. One day last week a gravedigger discovered that the plot in which Charlie Chaplin was buried had been ravaged. Authorities flashed an Interpol alert for "unknown persons wanted for the unlawful removal of the mortal remains of Charles Chaplin," who died last Christmas Day at 88.

About all the grave robbers could be charged with, unless they demanded ransom, was "interfering with the peace of the deceased" (maximum penalty: three years).

Widow Oona O'Neill Chaplin, 52, waited for word at the family estate.

By week's end no ransom demands had come.

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