A dead man was brought into a post office on Friday in a bizarre bid to collect his pension by two men now at the centre of a Garda probe.
The pair carried the remains of Peadar Doyle into Hosey’s on the Staplestown Road in Carlow.
The brazen duo propped the retiree’s corpse up on their shoulders, but a staff member quickly noticed the elderly man was ashen-faced and possibly dead and gardai were called.
The two men dropped the body of Mr Doyle, who was in his 70s, on the floor when the worker raised her concerns and fled the scene.
One of the suspects had earlier walked into the post office and attempted to claim the pension of the elderly man who lived in a house in nearby Pollerton Road. 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 understood the pair then returned with the corpse and attempted to obtain his pension money.
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 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 postmortem.
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 local woman told how 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.”
Fr John Dunphy, who was called to the post office to say prayers for the deceased, told the Irish Mirror: “I only went there and did my normal routine, I didn’t realise what had happened.
“The guards just asked me to come up to bless a man who had dropped dead.
“That’s all I was involved in, that’s all I normally do, just go in and say prayers with them and I left straight away.”
A Garda spokesman said: “Gardai are investigating all the circumstances surrounding the unexplained death of an elderly male in the Carlow area.”
A spokeswoman for An Post added: “We can confirm there was an incident at Staplestown Road Post Office.
“Gardai are investigating so we won’t make any further comment at this time.”
