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Two men 'drag corpse into Irish post office to claim his pension'
22 January 2022, 23:57 | Updated: 22 January 2022, 23:59
Two men are said to have dragged the body of an elderly man into a post office in Ireland in a bid to claim his pension.
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The series of events began with the men entering the post office on Staplestown Road in Co Carlow at around 11.30am on Friday, according to Irish media.
They were told that the pensioner had to be present so left and returned a short time later with a man in his 60s, who appeared to be propped up, the Irish Times reported.
The paper said that once suspicions were raised, the two younger men fled from the scene and left the body behind, with the pensioner being declared dead some time later.
Gardai have since confirmed that they are investigating the incident.
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Carlow mayor Ken Murnane said the local community was absolutely shocked by the reports.
"The whole town is in shock that anyone could actually think of doing something like that, it's unbelievable," he said.
"It's just mind-boggling that anyone could happen to do something like that, it beggars belief. It's like a Hitchcock movie."
A Garda spokesperson said gardai are investigating all the circumstances surrounding the unexplained death of an elderly male in the Carlow area on Friday morning.
"The services of the Garda Technical Bureau and the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested," they said.
"A post-mortem will be conducted by the Office of the State Pathologist, the results of which will determine the course of the investigation.
"No further information is available at this time."