Ellington

A dear friend of your departs this life peacefully, and how do you honor his memory? By rolling his corpse on an office chair to a check cashing place in order to cash his Social Security check? I wouldn't, but unfortunately, someone did.

When Virgilio Cintron, 66, died at his apartment at 436 West 52nd Street recently, his roommate and a friend saw an opportunity to cash his $355 check, the police said....The roommate, James P. O'Hare, and his friend, David J. Dalaia, both 65 and unemployed, placed Mr. Cintron's body in the chair and wheeled it around the corner, south along Ninth Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, the police said. The men parked the chair with the corpse in front of Pay-O-Matic at 763 Ninth Avenue, a check-cashing business that Mr. Cintron had patronized.

They went inside to present the check, but a clerk said Mr. Cintron would have to cash it himself, and asked where he was, the police said.

"He is outside," Mr. O'Hare said, indicating the body in the chair, according to Mr. Browne.... Police officers and an ambulance arrived as the two men were trying to maneuver the corpse and chair into the check-cashing office.

The two men were taken into custody and questioned. The police said they were considering charging them with check-cashing fraud.