Local

Clerk who mistook body for mannequin fired

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Tribune reports a 61-year-old front desk clerk has been fired after mistaking the body of a tenant for a mannequin, and then throwing her body in a trash bin.
 
Ronald Benjamin told police he saw the body in the parking lot of the 16-story St. Petersburg apartment building early Wednesday and assumed someone put a mannequin there as part of an April Fool's Day prank.
 
A co-worker arrived and told him a body was in the parking lot, but he insisted it was a mannequin. He got a newspaper carrier and her son to help him toss the body in the garbage. A maintenance worker saw the body and called authorities.
 
Police say a 96-year-old woman committed suicide by jumping from her apartment balcony.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.