Photo: YouTube screenshot
A shocking incident unfolded in Rio de Janeiro when a Brazilian woman attempted to use a dead man’s corpse to co-sign a loan at a local bank. The bizarre event was captured on video and has since gone viral.
The woman, identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, was seen in the video addressing the deceased man as “uncle,” who was seated in a wheelchair. She attempted to get the dead man to sign a loan contract worth 17,000 reais ($3,250). She placed a pen in the man’s hand and pretended to converse with him, urging him to sign the documents, The New York Post reported.
“Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, because I can’t sign for you,” she said in the video. “Sign so you don’t give me any more headaches, I can’t take it anymore.”
The bank employee told the woman that the man did not appear to be doing well. “He is like that,” she said. “He doesn’t say anything. Uncle, do you want to go to the [hospital] again?”
Bank employees, suspicious of the situation, called the police. Upon their arrival, authorities confirmed that the man, identified as 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga, had been dead for at least two hours before the incident occurred.
“She tried to pretend to get him to sign the loan. He already entered the bank dead … she knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours,” investigating officer Fábio Luiz Souza told local TV show Bom Dia Rio. “I have never come across a story like this in 22 years [as a cop].”
Nunes now faces potential charges of theft through fraud, embezzlement, and abuse of a corpse.
The relationship between Nunes and the deceased is still under investigation, and authorities are also looking into the cause of Braga’s death.
Photo: YouTube screenshot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le6DA2rmPn4
