...do you know where your dead neighbor's body is?
So two seniors took their neighbor's body to the Pay-O-Matic check cashing shop on 9th Avenue yesterday afternoon, and tried to cash his latest Social Security check. Apparently, he passed away on Monday of natural causes. One of the men was the deceased's roommate. So these two men not only neglected to have his body removed or inform any surviving kin, but they attempted to use the body in an act of fraud. Only in New York, right?
I could see this working if his two buddies wheeled him in a wheelchair. But they were wheeling him in an office chair, and in broad daylight (on unseasonably warm day, in fact). And as my girl said, maybe I'd understand this plot if the two friends were teenagers, who were being foolish, thinking they could fool the clerks. But they are both 65 years old, just one year younger than the deceased. As far as we know, they have clean records. And yesterday afternoon, on 51th and 9th, just blocks from my office, there they were, desperately trying to cash a $355 Social Security check. Quite sad, really. This is our city. Full of desperate people who do foolish things. Now before I sound like Megan McArdle and judge these guys as lazy, or not really poor, or just boozers, I have to say that it is certainly possible that they needed $355. Anything is possible.
The Pay-O-Matic logo. It's fitting, right?
And I couldn't resist: