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A 56-year-old unemployed man in Italy allegedly spent years impersonating his deceased mother to keep collecting her pension, a fraud that has now been dubbed the “Mrs Doubtfire scandal” by Italian authorities.
Mrs Doubtfire is a 1993 comedy film starring Robin Williams, where he disguises himself as an elderly British nanny to stay close to his children after a divorce. The title has become shorthand for elaborate disguise or impersonation.
The man, whom Italian authorities, have not identified allegedly kept up the fraud for nearly three years after his mother died.
According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he hid her mummified body inside their family home. The man’s mother, who was identified as Graziella Dall’Oglio, passed away at
82 years old and her son never reported her death.
He stuffed her corpse in a sleeping bag and stashed it in the laundry room at their home. When the authorities found the deceased elderly lady, her body had mummified.
The report said that the son went to extraordinary lengths to pass himself off as his late mother. He copied her makeup, mannerisms, and wardrobe and continued to withdraw her pension.
He even managed to renew her identity card at a government office on the outskirts of Mantua after she had died.
With his mother’s pension and income from three properties, he was allegedly taking home nearly $61,000 a year.
The fraud began to unravel only when a sharp-eyed government employee noticed something off. The official focussed on the “masculine” features, a deeper voice and a noticeably thick neck. The staffer alerted authorities, who later compared photographs of Graziella Dall’Oglio and her son and uncovered the elaborate scam.
The son later allowed police to search the house, where officers eventually discovered Graziella Dall’Oglio’s body. Officials said there was no indication of foul play and that her death did not appear suspicious.
“She probably died of natural causes but that will be established by the postmortem. It is a very strange story and very, very sad,” Francesco Aporti, the mayor of Borgo Virgilio, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
