doesn’t anybody forge signatures any more?

every now and again i understand how the criminal mind works…

…this isn’t one of those times. it is not uncommon for social security checks to get cashed at a check cashing store. it is also not uncommon for these to occasionally be cashed by a person that is not the person the check is made out to. occasionally the person is too old to make it down. or too sick. or crippled. and occasionally, it’s just fraud.

now, i don’t know about you, but if i was gonna commit welfare fraud it seems like in a neighborhood where most people know each other you could get away with it. you show up, you hold out the “signed” check, talk about how “…mr. jones is really in a bad way lately…” and you’d probably be okay. maybe, if you could, you get a hold of his drivers license – maybe even go the extra mile and forge a note to go with the forged signature on the check. you’re already in it for the long haul (in more ways than one) – what’s the harm?

well, one pair of new yorkers proved to go even further. they wanted to cash their room mate’s social security check, but there was one problem…

…he was dead. as of the day before.

for some reason they had not thought to inform anyone of this – the corpse was still in the apartment. why forge a note or pick a wallet when you can wheel the man down to show you’re legit?

so that’s what they did.

i am NOT making this up.

a police officer noticed a crowd gathering next door to the restaurant where he was having lunch. next door was a check cashing store. and in an office chair, on the sidewalk out front, sat a dead man (put out there just in case he was needed to verify the check was real, i guess). well, he was needed, so when they went to retrieve the body as per the demands of the check cashing employee (who probably expected a LIVING guy to come in, i would hope) the cops were waiting for them.

the amount of the check? $355

if i ever get that hard up for cash, shoot me…please.

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