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, Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, was using her hand to keep the deceased man’s head upright on Tuesday (April 16) afternoon.
“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.
A woman wheeled the corpse of a pensionary into a bank to make him “sign off” a loan in her name
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
When they arrived at the scene, paramedics confirmed that the victim, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga, had passed away a few hours earlier. His cause of death has not yet been made public.
Erika, who told officials she was Paulo Roberto’s niece and carer, was taken into custody.
Officials have appeared to signal that the two were 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,” Police Chief Fabio Luiz explained.
The woman could be charged with embezzlement and defamation of a corpse.
“I thought I had heard, read, and seen it all,” a social media user commented
