June 17, 2009 4:28 PM
- Text
Caught on Tape: Dead Mom Walking
Video Courtesy of New York Daily News
NEW YORK (CBS) Seventy-seven-year-old Irene Prusik died in 2003. But earlier this year, surveillance video caught her walking into a New York Department of Motor Vehicles office to renew her driver's license.
The elderly woman, wearing a red cardigan and lipstick, was in fact her 49-year-old-son, Thomas Prusik-Parkin, impersonating her as part of a daring fraud scheme that netted $117,000 in social security payments and rent subsidies, according to Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.
For years, Prusik-Parkin duped several government agencies with the "little old lady" act. But eventually investigators - tipped off by a man who was sued by the fake mother- got wise. They arranged to meet with Prusik-Parkin, who incredibly showed up in full costume: cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen tank, according to prosecutors.
Prusik-Parkin will be arraigned Wednesday for grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy charges linked to a deed and mortgage fraud scheme.
More At The New York Daily News
NEW YORK (CBS) Seventy-seven-year-old Irene Prusik died in 2003. But earlier this year, surveillance video caught her walking into a New York Department of Motor Vehicles office to renew her driver's license.
The elderly woman, wearing a red cardigan and lipstick, was in fact her 49-year-old-son, Thomas Prusik-Parkin, impersonating her as part of a daring fraud scheme that netted $117,000 in social security payments and rent subsidies, according to Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.
For years, Prusik-Parkin duped several government agencies with the "little old lady" act. But eventually investigators - tipped off by a man who was sued by the fake mother- got wise. They arranged to meet with Prusik-Parkin, who incredibly showed up in full costume: cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen tank, according to prosecutors.
Prusik-Parkin will be arraigned Wednesday for grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy charges linked to a deed and mortgage fraud scheme.
More At The New York Daily News
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