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Journalism of Courage
In a shocking incident, the Brazilian police arrested a woman who brought into a bank a 68-year-old on a wheelchair in a bid to secure a loan — but the elderly man turned out to be dead, according to a report in The Guardian.
When Érika de Souza Vieira wheeled a man into Itaú bank branch in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro and requested a loan of 17,000 Reais ($3,250), the suspicious employees quickly dialed the emergency services after noting the man’s poor health.
Paulo Roberto Braga, it turned out, was already dead, but Vieira kept speaking to him normally, asking him to sign the loan documents, and subsequently making him hold a pen and moving his hand forward.
Shortly after the incident, Vieira was arrested and charged with injuring a corpse and attempted theft through fraud, according to The Guardian.
Investigating officer Fábio Luiz Souza confirmed that Braga had been deceased for at least two hours, which was evident from the postmortem .
“The people at the bank thought he was sick, feeling unwell, and called Samu (Ministry of Health service that forms part of the Brazilian government’s Emergency Care National Policy). The doctor found that the elderly man had already died, apparently a few hours ago. The woman said she was his niece and caregiver, and in fact there is a degree of kinship. The main thing is to continue the investigations, identify other family members and find out if, when this loan was made, he was alive”, said Fábio Luiz according to the Rio newspaper O Dia.
Meanwhile, the woman’s lawyer has denied the accusations and argued that Braga was alive upon entering the bank.
The footage of Vieira’s attempt to exploit her deceased relative quickly went viral on social media, leaving Brazilians in disbelief.
“She knew he was dead,” investigating officer Fábio told breakfast news programme Bom Dia Brasil, as quoted by The Guardian. He added that he had never come across such a story in his 22 years of being a cop.
Police is also looking into Vieira’s relationship with the deceased to ascertain any potential motives behind her actions.
