- You can’t help wondering what drove him into such a bizarre ploy.
In many cases, the death of your mother is a devastating blow. This Italian man appears to have seen an opportunity in the tragedy.
The 56-year-old’s mother, Graziella Dall’Oglio died years ago. However, he never reported the death to the authorities.
In fact, he continued living as if his mother was still alive. That also meant collecting her retirement payments as normal.
Eventually, however, his mother’s ID expired, and he needed a new one to keep the benefits flowing. So, he went to renew the document — while dressed as his mother.
He wasn’t able to fool the customer service agent at the local registrar’s office. They alerted the authorities, who called the man, saying his grandmother needed to come in for additional verification.
The man came in, again in his grandmother’s clothes. This time, however, the police were waiting for him.
In his home, the authorities discovered Dall’Oglio’s mummified body. The case, dubbed the “Mrs. Doubtfire Scam” after the 1993 Robin Williams movie, has understandably shocked Italy.
However, not everyone is completely judgmental of the man. Some authorities have voiced their pity for the “lonely” man who resorted to unthinkable acts out of desperation.
Illicit Payments
The bizarre events happened in the town of Borgo Virgilio in north-central Italy. At their center is Graziella Dall’Oglio.
Mrs. Dall’Oglio, in her advanced age, had been living with her unemployed son. The 56-year-old man hasn’t been named in the media due to the ongoing investigation.
In 2022, Dall’Oglio sadly died. Instead of reporting her death and going into mourning, her son did something much more macabre.
He decided to hide his mother’s death. He wrapped her body in bedsheets, placed it in a sleeping bag, and stashed the bundle away.
His motivations for hiding his mother’s death had not been established at the time of writing. However, the son did keep collecting Dall’Oglio’s retirement payments.
Over the three years following her death, Dall’Oglio’s son collected more than $62,000 in fraudulent benefits.
Imperfect Disguise
Eventually, Dall’Oglio’s son ran into a problem. His mother’s ID was about to expire, and to keep collecting benefits, his mother needed a valid ID.
Instead of accepting that the jig was up, the man resorted in what seems to be a desperate measure. He went to the town council office to renew the ID — clad in his mother’s clothes.
“[He was] wearing a suit with a long skirt, lipstick on his lips, nail polish on his hands, jewelry around his neck and hands, old-fashioned earrings,” Borgo Virgilio mayor Francesco Aporti told local media.
However, although he could put on his mother’s clothes, Dall’Oglio’s son couldn’t change the fact that he simply wasn’t her. The customer service worker at the registrar’s office noticed something was off.
“[His] neck, upon closer inspection, was a bit too thick, and even the wrinkles were strange; the skin on his hands didn’t look like the 85-year-old he claimed to be. And his voice, feminine yes, but occasionally a few masculine notes escaped,” Aporti said.
Uncertain what was going on, the agent took in “Dall’Oglio’s” application and reported the incident to the higher-ups. They compared photos of Dall’Oglio and his son and determined that the person had indeed been the latter dressed as the former.
‘Very Sad Story’
The authorities decided that the best course of action would be to catch the man red-handed. So, they called Dall’Oglio’s son and told him that his mother needed to come in for a routine check to complete the ID application.
So, “she” did. The son returned again in Dall’Oglio’s clothes.
As soon as he walked in through the door, police officers informed him that he was under arrest. Upon later interrogation at the police station, the son came clean about his fraud scheme.
In his home, the cops discovered Mrs. Dall’Oglio’s corpse, which had by then become mummified. An investigation into the cause of her death is currently ongoing.
“She probably died of natural causes, but that will be established by a postmortem,” mayor Aporti said.
While many Italians have voiced their outrage online about the man’s scheme and the money he stole from the public’s pocket, Aporti isn’t as judgmental. According to him, the man must’ve undergone some hardships that made him commit his crime.
“It’s a very, very sad story, certainly one of great loneliness,” he concluded.