ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A man and woman in Orange County were arrested for allegedly using fake IDs and a dead man's identity to collect $500,000. State agents say the couple buried a friend under a fake name to get the money. WFTV learned that the dead man's son turned the couple in.
Laura Freed and Michael Petro are accused in a scheme state investigators and neighbor Carey Crownover say is almost too bizarre to believe.
"That's crazy. That is definitely crazy," Crownover said.
Police arrested the pair late Sunday on a warrant, charging them with fraud and grand theft. They're accused of using a dead man buried in Orlando's Washington Park Cemetery to steal more than $500,000.
"He had a normal family. I met his family, did a little work around the house for him, normal guy to me," Crownover said.
No one answered at Petro's or at Freed's home. But, according to court documents, the two suspects used several aliases.
Mike Petro went by the name Racko Petro and took out a life insurance policy. In 2005, witnesses say, when family friend Billy Urich died, the couple buried him under the name Racko Petro.
WFTV found his obituary in the Orlando Sentinel. Investigators say they used his burial to collect on the bogus $500,000 insurance claim. It might have worked, except they bragged about it in front Urich's son. He called investigators and now they're both facing felony charges for stealing the money, leaving a dead man buried without any real identity.
"Oh, it just amazes me things like that can happen," Crownover said.
Urich's son lives in New York, but he told investigators the suspects even threatened to kill him and bury him next to his father if he told authorities.