Gardaí have launched an investigation after two men carried a dead body into an Irish post office in an apparent attempt to claim his pension.
The deceased pensioner was described in reports as being “propped up” by the men as they walked into the building in County Carlow on Friday morning.
The outlandish series of events began when one of the men entered the post office at about 11.30am on Friday, asking to collect a pension payment for an older man, the Irish Times reported. He was refused, with staff informing him that the pensioner would have to be present in order for the money to be handed over.
The man returned soon after with two other men, one of whom was in his 60s and appeared to be being supported by the two others. The younger men asked to be given his pension payment.
No cash was handed over and the two men fled the scene, abandoning the man’s body after a woman who had become suspicious raised the alarm with a staff member. The deceased man is reported to have been well known to the men who had been carrying his body.
Gardaí said they were investigating “all the circumstances surrounding the unexplained death of an elderly male in the Carlow area”. A postmortem will be conducted.
A woman living beside the post office said her daughter saw the two men carrying the deceased man into the building. “She was leaving my house at the time and said the man looked unwell as his feet were dragging [along] the ground,” the woman, who did not want to be named, told the Irish Independent.
The mayor of Carlow, Fianna Fáil councillor Ken Murnane, said he was “absolutely shocked” to hear the news. “I heard there was a commotion in the post office,” he told the newspaper. “I go by there all the time and it’s a very busy post office – normally there’d be a queue out the door there.
“I was absolutely shocked to hear about what happened. I cannot believe anyone would do something like that. It beggars belief, I’m just shocked.”
The local Fine Gael councillor Fergal Byrne echoed Murnane’s words, saying: “The whole town is in shock.” He described the deceased as “a nice man by all accounts and someone who caused no offence to anyone”.
Byrne said: “The staff in the shop are very shook up from it. I’d like to offer my sympathies to the man’s family also. It’s a bizarre and upsetting situation.”
