Forgive me if there’s another thread on this - I haven’t been able to find one.
Not sure if this story has made the US yet, but it deserves an airing, because it’s hilarious, and each new revalation brings a new level of amusement.
So, back in 2002, a guy goes kayaking off the east coast of England. He never comes back. A week later a paddle is found, then the wreckage of the boat.
The law, apparently, is that if someone is missing, but declared deceased after an inquest, the spouse of the deceased has to wait five years before cashing in the life insurance.
So he’s declared dead, and exactly five years later, the widow of the deceased claims the money. She then sells all her assets and moves to Panama.
All fairly straightforward, if a little suspicious.
However, a couple of weeks ago, the deceased suddenly walks into a police station in London, and says “I think I’m a missing person”. He claims amnesia. The wife, speaking from Panama, says she is shocked at his reappearance.
Still straightforward, but a little more suspicious.
Then - and here’s where it all went horribly wrong - a member of the public types his and his wife’s names into Google, and bada bing, up pops a picture taken last year by a Panamanian realtor, featuring the ‘deceased’ and his wife, smiling into the camera, after a successful purchase.
:smack:
Now it has emerged that the guy was living in his own house for at least three years - according to his wife, he was missing for a year, then turned up on her doorstep, something I am finding difficult to believe - and when people, including his own sons, came to visit, he escaped into a studio apartment next door through the back of a wardrobe.
According to the wife, he revealed himself because he was “sick of being dead” and wanted to see his sons (thinks: why didn’t he just visit them in secret?). Me, I think he actually believed the cops would believe his amnesia claim - a move consistent with the amazing idiocy displayed throughout the rest of the ‘scam’. The couple’s adult sons claim to have been duped as well, though I also find that a little tough to believe.
And they would have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for that meddling necessity-for-a-small-amount-of-intelligence!
The guy’s name? Darwin. Do they issue awards to the living?
