Ed Koch Tombstone Engraved With Wrong Birth Date, Called ‘An Inadvertent Error’ [PHOTO]

After meticulously planning the details surrounding his burial for years, the tombstone of former New York City mayor Ed Koch was engraved with the wrong birth date. The 5-foot tall marker lists Koch’s birth year as 1942 instead of 1924, NBC 4 New York reports.

The mistake was "an inadvertent error," Tommy Flynn, of Flynn Funeral and Cremation Memorial Services, said. "I have to make it right. I will correct it," he said.

Koch was buried at Trinity Church cemetery in Washington Heights. He died of congestive heart failure in February at 88. Koch allegedly started preparing for his death in the 1980s, his former chief of staff, Diane Coffey, said at his funeral. He bought his plot at Trinity in 2008, one of Manhattan’s last available cemeteries, so he could stay in his beloved borough forever.

"I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone," Koch said.

When Koch was buried, the tombstone didn't have his birth date engraved. That was done earlier this month.

“A representative of Trinity Church called us last week and told us about the mistake. The representative said, ‘Are you sitting?’” Koch spokesman, George Arzt, told 1010 WNS. “And I knew it was not going to be good after that.”

The Democratic mayor, who served for 11 years, is credited with saving New York from economic crisis in the 1970s. Arzt said he might have taken the tombstone flub in stride.

“Ed is looking down and just chuckling,” Arzt said. “He probably would laugh, and then he would say, ‘Now George, you have to correct it.’ He always wanted the record corrected.”