This is another case of life imitating art–creepy, disturbing art that is.
Thomas Parkin channeled his inner “Norman Bates” to defraud the government out of thousands of dollars. In case you’re too young to remember, Norman Bates is the main character in the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Psycho,” about a deranged murderer who dresses up as his quite dead mother.
Hopefully you’ve figured out that the little old lady in the picture is actually Thomas Parkin. Parkin was charged Wednesday with impersonating his deceased mother to collect $117,000 in government benefits.
Irene Prusik, the poor woman, has been dead now for six years.
Parkin’s scheming began shortly after her death in 2003. The disturbed individual falsified her death certificate, then collected $52,000 from her $700 a month Social Security checks over a six year period. Parkin also received an extra $65,000 in rent subsidies by claiming he had a disability, and that his (deceased) mother was his landlord.
Parkin also got a friend in on the act. Mhilton Rimolo posed as the “mother’s” nephew when cashing checks and conducting other business. Rimolo was also charged with grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges.
I wonder if those other charges include being a pair of creepy scumbags. [Huffington Post]
