Updated at 1:36 P.M (CET)
The phrase "over my dead body" has recently taken on a new meaning after a woman wheeled the corpse of her alleged uncle into a bank to try to get him to "sign off'" a loan in her name.
Bank employees called for an ambulance and police after noting that the woman, 42-year-old Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, was using her hand to keep the deceased man's head upright on Tuesday (April 16) afternoon.
Highlights
- A woman attempted to have a deceased man 'sign off' a loan by wheeling his corpse into a bank.
- Bank employees called police after noticing the woman propping the man’s head and trying to fake his signature.
- Investigating officer Fábio Luiz Souza confirmed that the man had been dead for at least two hours before the incident.
"Uncle, are you listening? You have to sign it. I can't sign for you," she can be heard saying to the corpse at the establishment, located in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Image credits: @interssingworld
"I don't think this is legal. He doesn't look well. He's very pale," a bank employee at Itaú Unibanco told the woman, to which she responded, "He's like that."
Erika then insisted on speaking to the deceased pensioner, saying, "If you're not well, I can take you to hospital. Do you want to go back to the hospital again?"
According to local reports, the loan in question was for 17,000 Brazilian Reais, approximately $3,100.
Video footage shows the woman grabbing the dead man's neck with her left hand from behind and holding his hand in an attempt to sign the document. "Sign here and stop giving me a headache," she said.
Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes claimed the victim, identified as Paulo Roberto Braga, was her uncle
Image credits: @interssingworld
When they arrived at the scene, paramedics confirmed that the victim, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga, had passed away hours earlier. Agents are waiting for the autopsy examination to certify the cause of death.
Investigating officer Fábio Luiz Souza confirmed that the woman was aware that Paulo Roberto wasn't alive. “She knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours,” he told breakfast news program Bom Dia Rio. “I have never come across a story like this in 22 years [as a policeman],” he added.
Erika, who told officials she was Paulo Roberto's niece and carer, was taken into custody.
The lawyer representing her, Ana Carla de Souza Correa, told reporters that “the facts did not occur as has been narrated" and the man "was alive when he arrived at the bank.”
Officials are still investigating whether the two are actually related. Analysis of CCTV footage inside and outside the bank will offer clarity on whether Erika was on her own or if she was collaborating with alleged accomplices as part of an organized fraud scheme.
"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," Souza explained.
The woman could be charged with embezzlement and defamation of a corpse.
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