Police are searching for two men who used a corpse in a brazen scheme to collect the dead man’s pension.
Police in Ireland is searching for two men who brought a dead man into a post office in an attempt to steal his pension.
Local media reported the two men carried the corpse on their shoulders before taking him into the post office in southeast Ireland.
One of the staff members at the branch recognised that the lifeless man did not look well and called the police.
When she raised her concerns, the men dropped the corpse and ran out of the building.
The Irish Mirror reported the elderly man was known as Peadar Doyle, who was in his 70s and lived in a house nearby.
One of the suspects had earlier walked into the post office and attempted to claim the pension.
However, he was told the only person who could receive the payment was Mr Doyle and it could not be collected by anyone else on his behalf.
It’s believed one of the scammers told a staff member: “Ah, he’s grand, we’re going to bring him down to the hospital when we get the money.”
A source said: “Gardai were alerted about an unconscious man being carried into a post office.
“The guards and an ambulance arrived at the scene where they discovered the man was dead.”
Gardai, the national police of Ireland, immediately preserved the scene and it was sealed off along with the deceased’s house which was being examined by the Garda Technical Bureau.
The coroner was notified and the State Pathologist was called to carry out a post-mortem.
It is understood gardai last night believed Mr Doyle may have died from natural causes but it was too early to rule out other possibilities. Officers are hunting the two men.
A woman told The Mirror her daughter witnessed the pair carrying the pensioner into the post office.
She said: “She was leaving my house at the time and said the man looked unwell as his feet were dragging the ground.”