A Brazilian woman has been arrested after she attempted to use an old man's corpse to help co-sign her loan at a bank in Rio de Janeiro.
As reported by Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo via The New York Post, bank customer Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes was captured on video attempting to get a dead man whom she addressed as "uncle" to co-sign a 17,000 reais ($3250) loan.
"Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, because I can’t sign for you," she said in the video as she haphazardly brought a grim reality to Weekend At Bernie's. "Sign so you don’t give me any more headaches, I can’t take it anymore."
During the interaction with the bank employee, she was told that the man did not appear to be doing so well. "He is like that," she said. "He doesn't say anything. Uncle, do you want to go to the [hospital] again?" Shortly after the video was taken, the staff at the bank called the police, who promptly arrested the woman and confirmed the man was dead. He has since been identified as 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga.
"She tried to pretend to get him to sign the loan. He already entered the bank dead ... she knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours,” said investigating officer Fábio Luiz Souza in an interview on Bom Dia Rio. "I have never come across a story like this in 22 years [as a cop]."
Police have yet to determine the relationship between the woman and the deceased, but an investigation is ongoing. She is currently facing potential charges of theft through fraud, embezzlement, and abuse of a corpse. It is unclear if any other family members are involved in the attempted bank fraud.
