Fake mourner dined out at funerals

NZPA June 3, 2010, 7:48 am

A Wellington funeral home has finally stepped in and stopped a fake mourner who was gatecrashing funerals, eating the food on offer, and even taking home leftovers.

The "grim eater" attended up to four funerals a week during March and April before the Harbour City Funeral Home decided he had gone too far, and stopped him, the Dominion Post reported.

Director Danny Langstraat said the company eventually grew concerned enough to take a photograph of the man and distribute it to its branches.

"He was showing up to funeral after funeral, and without a doubt he didn't know the deceased."

The man, thought to be aged in his 40s, went to different churches and venues around the eastern suburbs, including Miramar, Rongotai and Kilbirnie.

"We saw him three or four times in a week. And certainly he had a backpack with some Tupperware containers so when people weren't looking, he was stocking up."

The man was "always very quiet and polite, and did as the rest of the mourners did in paying his respects".

Mr Langstraat said he was respectably dressed and did not look like someone who lived on the streets.

But he did suggest the man could have had mental health issues, as he was not discreet about taking the food.

He stopped coming after a staff member took the man aside, telling him he could still come to funerals but could not take food home with him.

Funeral Directors Association president Tony Garing said it was difficult to stop people from coming, or call their behaviour theft, because funerals were usually public events.

From: http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/7335991/fake-mourner-dined-out-at-funerals/