BANK HEIST AT BERNIE’S!
Dead roomie propped up in drive-thru getaway car
TWO harebrained Ohio women tried to pull off a real-life Weekend at Bernie’s stunt when cops say they drove their recently deceased roommate’s corpse to a bank and withdrew money from his account! Loreen Bea Feralo, 55, and Karen Casbohm, 63, can now add felony charges of theft and gross abuse of a corpse to their already lengthy rap sheets. According to cops in Ashtabula — a town near Cleveland — Feralo and Casbohm shared a home with 80-year-old Douglas Layman. When he died on
March 7, the two women got help from a pal, who hasn’t been identified, to load the body into their car, strap it upright in the passenger seat and head to the drive-thru window at Layman’s bank.
“Mr. Layman was placed in the vehicle in such a manner that he would be visible to bank staff in order to make the withdrawal,” says local Police Chief Robert Stell. “The bank had allowed this previously as long as they were accompanied by him.”
After withdrawing $900 in cash, they dropped off Layman’s body at Ashtabula County Medical Center’s emergency room without identifying either him or themselves, says prosecuting attorney Cecilia Cooper.
A few hours later, one of the women apparently called the hospital to provide information about the body, which allowed cops to track them down.
The callous cash-grab outraged Layman’s relatives.
“I couldn’t do that to an animal,” fumes his stepson, James Hubbard. “I don’t understand what they were thinking and how that money meant that much to them.”
The ruse has drawn comparisons to the 1989 dark comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, in which two goofballs are invited to their boss Bernie’s posh home in the Hamptons but arrive to find him dead. As others arrive for a Labor Day weekend party, they pretend Bernie is still alive because they don’t want to be blamed for killing him.
But Hubbard’s not laughing about his stepdad’s corpse being similarly abused.
“Just a great guy,” he says. “He didn’t bother no one. He kept to himself and helped people as much as he can. He’s always been there for our family.”