Ohio must have seen how far in the lead Florida is as far as crazy criminals are concerned and wanted in on the action because this is just a very odd thing to do. In a scene that appears as though it was taken straight from "Weekend at Bernie's" this actually happened and they would have gotten away with it as well if they hadn't gotten sloppy.
src
On a side note I want to say that it must have been a very strange acting gig for the actor that played Bernie in the movies whose name is Terry Kiser and these films are the only ones that he is known for despite the fact that he has appeared in nearly 150 films and TV shows.
Back to Ohio craziness. There were 3 roommates that ranged in age from a very bizarre 55 to 80 years old and one day, the oldest of the bunch croaked. The roommates had nothing to do with his death and were actually looking after him for quite some time. They had previously accompanied him to the bank to withdraw money because as you might expect, an 80 year old guy needs help with certain things. Therefore when the two younger roommates propped him up in the front seat and drove through the drive-thru teller, the staff inside were already familiar with the group and didn't put up any resistance when they asked to withdraw money on his behalf.
It is unclear how much they withdrew but one thing is for certain, the money wasn't intended for the deceased. Where they got "sloppy" is that shortly thereafter they drove their friend and roommate's corpse to a medical center and just dropped it off without providing any details about who the person was or who they were. Medical centers and hospitals tend to have quite a few cameras in them so it isn't much of a shock that the duo were quickly identified.
One of the roommates must have had some guilt about what they had done because he later called the medical center to provide information about who the dead man was that they just dropped off but at this point, they had behaved entirely too suspicious to get away with it.
src
Ashtabula, Ohio is a small town of less than 20,000 people so it is very likely that most people know most people there. It is also likely that the roommates will not do a bunch of time for this once they have a chance to tell their side of this stupid story. I would imagine that the judge will have mercy on them because other than this one really stupid thing, they had been taking care of this old man for quite some time.
They have appeared in court and are charged with a crime that I have never heard of before which is called "abusing a corpse."
Even though they went about it the wrong way I can "kind of" understand why they would do this. When you die and you have no family for your money to go to, what happens to it? Does it just get confiscated by the government? Donated to a charity? If the old man in question didn't have a will it would just disappear into the ether I'm sure.
I think they would have been fine if they had just taken the body back home but I guess then they would have to answer questions from the coroner's office about why they moved a dead boy around so much. The two roommates don't seem like the sharpest sticks in the woods so I would imagine the would have cracked under the pressure.
It seems that ferrying corpses around to collect their pensions is not as unusual an occurrence as you might think ....
Two men take corpse into Irish post office to claim dead man’s pension
What a great find. Thanks for that. At least it was 2 years ago but I just wonder what goes through the people's heads when they do this thinking that they can get away with it. Your story is much better because those people had the balls to actually walk in the branch office not just a drive through.
They had a limited time to abuse he corpse lol. People get up to some really crazy things because who would do such a thing?
I just can't imagine my roommate dying and one of the things that I think we should do is drive his dead body to the bank. Maybe they were crackheads because that lot will do just about anything to score.
When I was reading this, I thought "i'll bet that's not so unusual" and then I saw Deirdyweirdys comment.
Freshly dead, in a car, and having done it before, it would work, so it's not surprising that they tried it. I might try it too, if his money would go into the ether, no one would get hurt. Their mistake, yes, was to not go back home, they must have been freaked out. I doubt there would have been much of an inquest. What is curious to me is what they were charged with - nothing about robbing a dead man?
They were charged with abuse of a corpse or something like that. I don't think that any sort of fraud charges were brought against them.
I agree, if they had just gone home everything would have been fine and I would support them not allowing the state to take ownership of whatever pittance of money was in the man's account anyway.