An Irish man has been charged after he propped up a dead man and carried him inside a post office in a presumed effort to claim his pension money.
The Weekend at Bernie’s-style deception began the morning of Jan. 21, when a man entered the County Carlow post office and asked to collect the pension payment for an older man, reports The Guardian.
The staff refused to hand over the payment, saying that the account recipient had to be present in order to claim the money.
The man returned – this time with a friend – and they propped up the dead 66-year-old Peadar Doyle, reports the Irish Times.
A “concerned staff member enquired about the wellbeing of the man being propped up,” reports the newspaper.
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The two men then allegedly “dropped the man and left the post office.”
A woman living beside the post office told The Irish Independent that her daughter witnessed two men dragging the deceased man into the building.
“She was leaving my house at the time and said the man looked unwell as his feet were dragging (along) the ground,” the woman, who did not want to be named, said.
The mayor of Carlow, Ken Murnane, told The Guardian that he was “shocked” to hear of such a ploy.
“I was absolutely shocked to hear about what happened. I cannot believe anyone would do something like that. It beggars belief, I’m just shocked.”
Declan Haughney, 40, was arrested Wednesday and appeared in Kilkenny District Court Thursday on two counts of deception.
Haughney told the Irish Times that the deceased man was his uncle, but claimed he didn’t know the man was dead and thought that, perhaps, he’d died on the walk to the post office.
The local police told The Guardian there is an ongoing investigation and a post-mortem will be conducted.
According to the Irish Times, the second man was also charged and released from custody.