“The most serious thing was that he took advantage of us when we were dismayed by loss loved ones”, explains one of the widows deceived by the worker of Cemetery of Barcelona investigated by fraud. This victim, whose identity in the following story is concealed under the name of Rulehas contacted EL PERIÓDICO because it considers that in the information published to date, also by this newspaper, the first to report on this case, it was implied that the victims had participated in a “bad practice” by paying the scammer for an alleged favored deal. “That’s not true,” he remarks. “He tried to trick me into giving him 1,840 euros in an envelope, but I didn’t. Also, I know that some families who did pay did so because they had no choice“.
Norm’s testimony
The husband de Norma died in March 2022. Suddenly. And trying to fulfill her wish, Norma asked the funeral home to bury him in the Les Cortes Cemetery. “It was very culémore than 50 years as a Barcelona member and his illusion was to rest next to the Camp Nou“, she explains. But the funeral home informed her that there were no niches available in Les Corts. Norma insisted that her partner had to rest there and the funeral home replied again that there were no seats, which could not be. Frustrated, she ended up burying her husband far from Barcelona.
As the days went by, immersed in the unreality of the new hours without her traveling companion by her side, she discovered that she wanted to continue fighting for her last will. She went to the Barcelona Cementiris office in the Les Corts cemetery and was attended by a commercial of some 50 years what did you think polite, gentle Y charismatic. He was the alleged swindler of the Barcelona cemeteries.
The commercial invited her to take a seat and turned on her computer. “She typed something, she printed some papers and, to my surprise, she told me that she had various niches available“. As simple as that. Had the funeral home assured Norma that there was nothing to do and had a simple visit to the Les Corts cemetery been enough for her?
The worker got up and asked Norma to come with her. “We took a walk through the cemetery and he showed me available niches. And he kept saying things like ‘I don’t like this one because the downspout is close and when it rains it will get wet’ or ‘If I give you this one, we’ll be neighbors because I have my friends buried here. parents.’ Until we got to the niche that sold me: ‘this one,'” he recalls. Afterwards, the salesperson and widow returned to the office and began the paperwork to formalize the transaction.
budget and envelope
Norma still keeps the budget for the 50-year niche concession that the scammer gave her, and shows it during the interview. “She included it all: stone, dried flowers, vases For a niche that will be empty for two years and a day, at least! –That is the time that by law must elapse before proceeding with the transfer of her husband’s body–. And I already have a tombstone, but he assured me that he couldn’t bring it because she had to be black for normative reasons, aesthetics, and mine is white. I didn’t get to choose anything from the budget, everything was handled by him at his whim.”
not satisfied with thicken the billthe commercial took out a empty envelope and handed it to him. And on the budget sheet he wrote down a number with a blue pen: 1,840 euros. That was the amount that he had to put in cash and in black inside the envelope if he wanted to close an operation that had to be initialed as soon as possible. “He told me it was for surcharges for marble work and operators so that they could earn a living without having to pay VAT”.
The message
Norm came home upset: had achieved the niche, but suspected that it had been manipulated. She thought about it for hours and ended up writing a message to the worker at Les Corts to tell him that he would pay every penny but with invoice, not in black.
The commercial called her as soon as she read it and threatened to cancel the concession of the niche. That was too much for Norma, who wasn’t about to give up her husband’s dying wish, again. The woman went to Barcelona’s town hall with the budget and the empty envelope and explained what had happened. A few days later, she received a call from the worker under investigation. “He told me that he was a family man and asked me if he was aware of what he was doing.”
Related news
After Norma’s notice, the city council informed Cementiris de Barcelona and this company, which depends on Municipal Services of Barcelonain view of the evidence, removed the commercial from his job, where he had been almost all his life, and opened a internal investigation. Reviewed past sales and contacted customers. That’s how he came up with seven other families who reported events similar to those of Norma. The commercial was fired in June. The city council has denounced the facts in a Barcelona court and the Mossos d’Esquadra consider the suspect a swindler. “The only thing that still doesn’t fit is why the funeral home told me there was no place in Les Corts,” she remarks.
The council has returned the cheated money to all families. Norma has preserved the niche for her husband and in two years she will move her body next to the Camp Nou. Not only has she complied with her last wish, she has also uncovered a scammer who took advantage of people knocked to death.