WARNING: Distressing content
A woman suspected of wheeling a dead man, who she said was her uncle, to a bank to withdraw a four-figure loan has been detained by police in Brazil.
Footage of the woman at the bank has sparked a nationwide discussion in Brazil after going viral on social media. It appears to show the woman at the counter of a Rio de Janeiro branch of Itau Bank, propping up the head of an elderly man in a wheelchair and trying to get his hand to clasp a pen.
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According to police, she was attempting to take out a loan equivalent to A$4,600, which had already been approved by the bank but still needed the elderly man to sign off.
But the elderly man in the video – filmed by a bank attendant – remains unresponsive. His arm is limp, and his head keeps falling back as she talks to him.
“Uncle, are you listening?” she asks him. “You need to sign. If you don’t sign, there’s no way. I can’t sign for you, it has to be you. What I can do, I do.”
“Sign it so you don’t give me any more headaches, having to go to the registry office. I can’t take it anymore,” the woman continues.
At that point, one of the bank attendants says, “I think he isn’t feeling well,” and a second attendant agrees.
Rio de Janeiro Civil police chief Fabio Luis Souza said the bank attendants then decided to call an ambulance.
When paramedics arrived, they concluded that the man had been dead for a couple of hours and must have been dead when he arrived at the bank.
Police said they are still trying to establish the relationship between the woman and the dead man. The woman said he was her uncle.
CNN Brasil reported that the family’s lawyer disputed the account offered by police, saying “the facts did not happen as stated; that the man has arrived at the bank alive; and that the woman is completely shaken and medicated.”
Authorities said they are investigating the case, but have not brought charges.