Florida clerk mistakes body in parking lot for April Fools’ prank

WATCH ABOVE: CBS News’ reporter Grayson Kamm spoke with those that live in the building – as well as the clerk who mistook the elderly woman’s body for a mannequin.”

Assuming it was an elaborate April Fools’ Day joke, the 61-year-old worker reportedly spotted the remains during a smoke break in the parking lot at the Peterborough Apartments for Seniors in St. Petersburg, Fla. around 4:30 a.m.

He went back inside and returned a couple of hours later where police say he solicited the help of newspaper delivery boy to move what he still assumed was a mannequin with fake blood to the garbage bin.

“It appears at this point that the desk clerk earnestly believed that victim’s body was that of a mannequin and that blood found at the scene was faked as part of an elaborate practical April Fools’ joke,” said the St. Petersburg Police Department in a statement. “Consequently no criminal charges will be filed.”

Officials say it wasn’t until around 8:00 am ET when a maintenance man realized the tragic truth.

Police say the woman had suffered from depression and left behind a suicide note before she  jumped from the 16th floor. Her name has not been released as police work to notify her next of kin. A memorial has now been set up in front of the apartment.

In an interview with news station WTSP, the clerk said he was “distraught and upset” and hasn’t slept as he is “still haunted by the vision of what he thought was a mannequin and everything he saw early that morning.”

While it may seem difficult to understand how anyone could mistake a human body for a mannequin, police say that darkness played a role and that the woman’s body was distorted from the impact of her fall and that rigor mortis had probably already set in.

The desk clerk was reportedly fired after the incident.