By April MacIntyre Jun 18, 2009, 0:24 GMT
A real life "Pyscho" Norman Bates, who claimed he assumed his dead mother's persona as she breathed her last breath, has been arrested in New York.
Thomas Parkin spent years dressed as his 73 year-old mother to collect her social security.
CNN reported that the New Yorker was in need of additional cash flow so he started dressing up as his dead mother in order to collect her Social Security benefits, and the scam worked so well he did it for six years.
Parkin and his accomplice Mr. Rimolo, who played the part of "nephew" got served a 47-count indictment this afternoon.
Parkin wore a wig, sunglasses, nail polish and old-lady clothes which helped him collect more than $100,000 in Social Security benefits and rent subsidies as his mom, Irene Prusik, who died in 2003.
CNN reports Parkin enlisted his friend to pose as a nephew, and the two were seen in videotape together at various federal offices.
Parkin, 49, was arrested yesterday and charged with grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy, perjury and criminal impersonation in connection with the plot. His "nephew" was also charged.
"I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath, so I am my mother," Parkin allegedly told police when he was arrested, according to CNN.
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