Suspicious bank staff in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil filmed the pair and contacted police after the woman used her hand to prop up the dead man’s head and told the corpse it needed to sign a document
A woman has been arrested after taking a dead man into a bank in a wheelchair and trying to get him to sign off a four-figure loan in her name.
Suspicious bank staff started filming the pair and ended up calling for an ambulance and police as she used her hand to keep the deceased pensioner’s head upright and told him: “Uncle, are you listening? You have to sign it. I can’t sign for you.”
Paramedics confirmed Paulo Roberto Braga, 68, had passed away a few hours earlier when they reached the bank branch in Bangu, a neighbourhood in the western area of Rio de Janeiro. Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes told police after she was arrested at the scene she was his niece as well as his carer.
Officials have appeared to signal they are related and are said to be checking CCTV cameras inside and outside the bank to see if Mr Braga’s family member was on her own or with alleged accomplices amid suspicion they could be dealing with an organised fraud. The results of a post-mortem to establish cause of death have not yet been made public.
Footage published by Brazilian press showed the detainee telling her supposed uncle to grip hold of his pen hard as she placed it between his fingers and encouraged him to sign a piece of paper on a desk in front of him alongside his photo ID with his name on it.
The video showed the dead man’s head swaying back and forth before she grabbed hold of his neck with her left hand from behind. She urged him: “Sign here and stop giving me a headache” but was met by a logical silence from the man she was pretending to have a conversation with.
The bank worker witnessing the scene replied: “I don’t think this is legal. He doesn’t look well. He’s very pale”, prompting Erika to reply: ‘He’s like that” before she told the dead OAP: “If you’re not well, I can take you to hospital. Do you want to go back to hospital again?” The surreal incident happened yesterday afternoon.
One social media commenting on the footage said: “Human beings have no limits. This is inhumane.” Another added: “This is so sad. It makes my heart hurt.”
Police chief Fabio Luiz confirmed after the arrest Mr Braga was already dead when he was wheeled into the bank.
He added: “The investigation is continuing to identify other family members and to find out if he was alive when the loan was arranged and when it dates from.”
Local reports said the loan was for 17,000 Brazilian Reais, the equivalent of around £2,500. Two men were jailed in Ireland last July for attempting to use a dead man’s body to deceive a post office and claim his pension.
Declan Haughney, 41, was sentenced to two years and 37-year-old Gareth Coakley was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The incident occurred in Carlow town in January 2022.
CCTV footage of both men dragging the lifeless body of 66-year-old Peadar Doyle, who had a hat on, from his home to the post office was shown during their trial at the Circuit Criminal Court in Carlow. Reports at the time described Haughney as a nephew of the dead man.
