‘I had no option’: Man ‘steals mother-in-law’s corpse from funeral home’

A distraught man has gone to extreme lengths to retrieve his mother-in-law’s corpse from a funeral home that was about to go bust, it has been claimed.

In what may be the craziest funeral story you’ll read in a while, The Sun reports an unnamed man from the United Kingdom felt he had no choice but to break into the home and steal the lifeless body after he was unable to get in touch with the undertaker.

According to the report, the man from Rochester, Kent, feared the family would not get the body in time for a planned service. After numerous failed attempts to contact the parlour, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

“I had no option,” he told The Sun. “I had to get the body out.”

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The man still hasn’t told his wife about what really happened, although it is alleged he tried to contact the parlour owner for several days in the lead up to the planned service for his mother-in-law, with no success. It is claimed the man broke into the building during broad daylight via a door in an alleyway.

Using a trolley, he retrieved his mother-in-law’s remains and transported her corpse to a new funeral director in a van he had previously hired.

Explaining that his wife was grieving the loss of her mother, the man told the publication he’d taken it upon himself to organise the funeral and that he has no plans on telling her what really happened. He even claimed he spent days at the local police station trying to get in touch with the funeral owner, but had no luck.

The man, believed to be in his 50s, was allegedly joined by his son and used a young woman as a lookout while he retrieved the body. It is thought the woman distracted people on the street while the man moved the body, which was covered in a sheet, into the van.

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“They put it straight into the van,” the woman told The Sun. “It sounds insensitive, but those who helped just had to laugh – it was so unbelievable.”

The ordeal is thought to have happened over a year ago and the funeral parlour in question has since been closed. Meanwhile, the former owner apologised to families who had troubles getting in touch with her.

Have you ever had any problems with a funeral home when organising a service for a loved one?