Brazilian Woman Wheels Dead Uncle Into Bank, Has the Corpse Co-sign to Guarantee a Loan for $3,250

“I don’t think he’s well. He doesn’t look well at all,” remarked one distrustful employee as Vieira tried to get her elderly relative to guarantee a 17,000 reals ($3,250) loan. Paulo Roberto Braga, 68, had died at least two hours before, authorities said.

Ten minutes after visiting the bank in Rio de Janeiro Tuesday afternoon with her dead uncle, local police arrested Vieira. She was charged with violating a corpse and attempted theft through fraud, according to the Rio newspaper O Dia.

“She knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours,” the investigating officer, Fábio Luiz Souza, told the morning news program Bom Dia Rio on Wednesday.

“I have never come across a story like this in 22 years [as a cop],” added Souza, who said visible signs of livor mortis left no doubt as to Braga’s state.

Brazilian Woman Brings Dead Uncle to Bank, Has Him Sign For a Loan

Footage of Vieira’s surreal and macabre alleged attempt to cash in on her relative’s corpse has gone viral on social media, with Brazilians voicing stupefaction at the scene.

At one point in the images – which bank workers began filming after smelling a rat – one suspicious employee comments on Braga’s pallid complexion. “That’s just what he’s like,” Vieira replies, before trying to place a pen in his limp hand once again.

Brazilian Woman Brings Dead Uncle to Bank, Has Him Sign For a Loan

Brazilian journalists shared their viewers’ bewilderment. “It is just unbelievable. It seems like a wind-up, but this is serious,” the news presenter Leilane Neubarth exclaimed as she told viewers about the scandal on the network GloboNews. “She has gone into the bank with a cadaver – and has tried to get money with a human being who is dead.”

Attorney Ana Carla de Souza Correa, who represents Vieira, insisted Braga was undead. “The facts did not occur as has been narrated. Paulo was alive when he arrived at the bank,” Correa told reporters, claiming there were witnesses who could prove that. “All of this will be cleared up,” the lawyer added. “We believe in Érika’s innocence.”