A Confused Thief Stole This Hearse In Australia While A Man’s Body Was Still Inside Of It

When I die at the age of 96 in the midst of the world’s first sky-dive/orgy, I want my funeral to have a car chase component, because if there’s one thing that most funerals lack, it’s adventure.

It was a dramatic farewell for Sydney human rights lawyer Seth Richardson that his family says would have appealed to his wicked sense of humour.

As his family prepared for the funeral of the 52-year-old, also a regular contributor to letters to the editor in the Herald, in the Blue Mountains on Thursday a man jumped in the hearse and stole it – with Mr Richardson still in a coffin in the back.

“One of the funeral guys who works for the funeral home went out to the hearse to grab the trolley to put it under the coffin and in a split second this guy jumped out of the bushes, jumped straight into the hearse and started it up,” Mr Richardson’s sister-in-law Hayley West said. (via)

That’s not something you expect to see at a funeral. It’s also horrifying, I’m sure, but thankfully the deceased’s brother Tobias was able to bring a peaceful and quick end to the situation when he blocked the thief’s exit after the hearse pulled into a cul-de-sac.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the police said that the hearse thief was a 49-year-old man with dementia who had fled a nursing home. That means that there will be no outback justice for him and he will not be dangled over a cage filled with ornery kangaroos. I didn’t bring a lot of previously acquired knowledge about Australia to this job, but I know that much.

By the way, has there has ever been a headline more ripe for the ripping by Law and Order than this? It’s a shame that that show is no longer on the air. Not a “have a loved one’s hearse stolen” kind of shame, but a shame nonetheless.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald via Gawker)

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