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A Brazilian woman has been arrested after she strolled into a bank pushing a corpse she hoped would co-sign a loan for her.
Disturbing video, captured by bank employees in the Bangu neighbourhood of Rio De Janeiro, shows Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes bringing the body of Paulo Roberto Braga into the bank branch, The Daily Beast reported.
Braga had died at the age of 68 just a few hours earlier.
In the video, Ms Nunes is reportedly heard calling Braga her uncle as she spoke to the body and propped up his head.
She also asked him to co-sign on a loan for approximately $3,400, The New York Post reported.
“Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign [the contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, because I can’t sign for you,” Ms Nunes says in the footage.
She then grabs a pen and forces it into the dead man’s hands, telling the corpse to hold the pen “hard”.
“Sign so you don’t give me any more headaches, I can’t take it anymore,” she says.
At one point in the video a worker points out that the man looks ill and that his colour is unusual, but Ms Nunes waves off his concerns.
“He is like that. He doesn’t say anything,” Ms Nunes replies. “Uncle, do you want to go to the [hospital] again?”
The bank staffers ultimately called law enforcement.
Police and paramedics responded to the scene and found that Ms Nunes had been pushing a dead man around in a wheelchair during her visit.
Ms Nunes – who told police that she was the man’s niece – was arrested on the scene. She may now face charges including fraud, embezzlement, and abuse of a corpse.
“She tried to pretend to get him to sign the loan. He already entered the bank dead,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz told TV Globo, a major Brazilian broadcaster.
“The main thing is to continue the investigation to identify other family members, and find out more about this loan.”
An investigation continues into the nature of Braga’s death, whether or not Ms Nunes is actually his niece, and whether anyone else related to either of them could be trying to commit bank fraud, police said.
The Civil Police in Bangu told The Independent that Ms Nunes was arrested and charged with fraud and desicrating a corpse.
“The elderly man’s body will be examined at the Legal Medical Institute (IML), in order to determine the circumstances of his death. Agents [will] carry out investigations to clarify the facts and witnesses will be heard,” a police spokesperson said.
An attorney representing Ms Nunes has said that Braga was alive when he entered the bank.
“The facts did not occur as has been narrated. Paul was alive when he arrived at the bank,” Ana Carla de Souza Correa, Ms Nunes’ lawyer told reporters.
“All of this will be cleared up. We believe in Érika’s innocence.”
