This must be a particularly strong meme, because every now and then you come across a story about people doing this. I'm sure that from time to time the ripping out of the heart of a corpse is required, but I am glad that it isn't my job. Not even for time and a half.
The long shadow of Dracula
"Last week, six men were jailed for ripping out the heart of a corpse they believed was 'undead'. As Monica Petrescu in Bucharest writes, to many Romanians, vampires are not legend but terrifying reality
"It was just before midnight as Gheorghe Marinescu and five of his relatives crept into the graveyard in the small Romanian village of Marotinul de Sus. They knew which plot they were looking for – a simple earth grave with a wooden cross bearing the name Petre Toma – and quickly, but quietly, set about digging."