TripperFan
01-09-2008, 12:44 PM
Wednesday January 9, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
It was a real life version of the 1989 movie "Weekend at Bernie's." And the incredible thing is they thought they could actually get away with it.
Two 65-year-old men are in custody in New York City accused of a crime you may not believe. They rolled a dead man seated in an office chair through the streets of Manhattan Tuesday and went into one of those money exchanging stores, where they allegedly tried to cash the deceased's social security cheque.
Cops say the two suspects left Virgilio Cintron's body outside in his seat while they went into a place called the Pay-O-Matic to collect the $355 benefit. Those on the street could scarcely believe what they were seeing. "The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," spokesman Paul Browne relates.
So what foiled this allegedly dastardly scheme? A quick thinking clerk and a curious crowd. It turns out the person behind the counter knew Cintron and demanded to see him in the - uh - flesh. The two accused went outside to wheel him in, but by this time a large number of people had gathered to watch the increasingly absurd spectacle.
One of them was a cop, who happened to be having lunch at a restaurant next door. "It's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne deadpans about the lawman's inspection. Other officers arrived just as the pair was getting ready to satisfy the clerk's demands and arrested both of them, calling in a medical team to determine what happened to the 66-year-old would-be cash cow.
It turns out one of the men lives in the same apartment as Cintron, who died of natural causes sometime in the preceding 24 hours. It appears the two simply decided to take advantage of his demise and his final cheque, cashing in on both.
They remain behind bars on fraud charges.
CityNews.ca Staff
It was a real life version of the 1989 movie "Weekend at Bernie's." And the incredible thing is they thought they could actually get away with it.
Two 65-year-old men are in custody in New York City accused of a crime you may not believe. They rolled a dead man seated in an office chair through the streets of Manhattan Tuesday and went into one of those money exchanging stores, where they allegedly tried to cash the deceased's social security cheque.
Cops say the two suspects left Virgilio Cintron's body outside in his seat while they went into a place called the Pay-O-Matic to collect the $355 benefit. Those on the street could scarcely believe what they were seeing. "The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," spokesman Paul Browne relates.
So what foiled this allegedly dastardly scheme? A quick thinking clerk and a curious crowd. It turns out the person behind the counter knew Cintron and demanded to see him in the - uh - flesh. The two accused went outside to wheel him in, but by this time a large number of people had gathered to watch the increasingly absurd spectacle.
One of them was a cop, who happened to be having lunch at a restaurant next door. "It's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne deadpans about the lawman's inspection. Other officers arrived just as the pair was getting ready to satisfy the clerk's demands and arrested both of them, calling in a medical team to determine what happened to the 66-year-old would-be cash cow.
It turns out one of the men lives in the same apartment as Cintron, who died of natural causes sometime in the preceding 24 hours. It appears the two simply decided to take advantage of his demise and his final cheque, cashing in on both.
They remain behind bars on fraud charges.