From The Guardian:
Gardaí have launched an investigation after two men carried a dead body into an Irish post office in an apparent attempt to claim his pension.
The deceased pensioner was described in reports as being "propped up" by the men as they walked into the building in County Carlow on Friday morning.
The outlandish series of events began when one of the men entered the post office at about 11.30am on Friday, asking to collect a pension payment for an older man, the Irish Times reported. He was refused, with staff informing him that the pensioner would have to be present in order for the money to be handed over.
While the Weekend at Bernie's homage here is obvious, this audacious stunt also reminds me of the 1998 Irish comedy film Waking Ned Devine, in which an old man in a small Irish town drops dead after learning that he's won the lottery, prompting the rest of the townsfolk to scheme ways to claim his winnings.
In this case, the corpse belonged to a 66-year old man named Peadar Doyle, who was being carried by his 40-year old nephew, Declan Haughney, and another man. Haughney insisted that he found his uncle, with whom he lives, "went a bit slumpy" while he was out walking, and that he believed Doyle was still alive when he helped him walk to the post office. "I'm not an eejit to walk into Hoseys with a dead man and collect his money," he said, according to The Irish Mirror. "Am I cuckoo? Am I cuckoo? I'm not."
Haughney has been charged with deception, though he maintains his innocence. It may be worth noting that Haughney has a criminal record, mostly involving activities relating to his past struggles with drug addiction — details which Haughney claims are being unfairly used against him in this case.
Two men take corpse into Irish post office to claim dead man's pension [Clea Skopeliti / The Guardian]
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