Morgue workers stole credit cards from dead, FBI says

The FBI arrested two former city employees Tuesday accused of stealing bank cards from dead bodies taken to New York City’s mortuary and racking up thousands of dollars in charges.

Former mortuary technicians Willie Garcon and Charles McFadgen were charged with access device fraud after using the cards for a long list of unauthorized purchases, prosecutors said.

McFadgen’s attorney declined to comment. A message seeking comment was sent to Garcon’s attorney.

Garcon, 50, of Brooklyn, worked as an autopsy technician and transported bodies to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner between May 2018 and July 2020.

The FBI said he used credit and debit cards from four dead people to make nearly $6,500 in purchases, including a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Florida. He also bought an air conditioner and paid a parking ticket, authorities said.

McFadgen, 66, of the Bronx, made more than $13,500 in unauthorized purchases using bank cards stolen from five dead people, authorities said.

He told investigators that his co-workers had given him “about four or five credit cards while he was employed by the OCME and about six credit cards after he retired” in 2016, according to court filings. The court records did not identify the coworkers.

“He said that he used the cards to make small purchases, such as purchasing stamps from the post office and buying food from McDonald’s,” FBI Agent Kerry Calnan wrote in a criminal complaint.