Woman warns of hiring post-death workers after cash theft
PETALING JAYA: While mourning the unexpected loss of her only sibling, who died alone in his Damansara apartment, Jenny (not her real name) never expected to face another disturbing encounter.
Just days later, she caught a worker from a company that specialises in post-death cleaning services attempting to pocket a large sum of cash left behind by her late brother.
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Her older brother was in his mid-50s and died of natural causes in May last year.
Jenny, who is in her early 50s and works in the advertising industry, said the incident left her feeling unsettled till this day.
Speaking about her brother’s death, Jenny said it was not until his neighbours sensed a foul odour emanating from the apartment that his death was uncovered by the police.
She said her brother’s decomposing body was moved out to a mortuary for a post-mortem before funeral arrangements were made by her family.
She said as a result of the decomposition of the remains in the apartment, she sought the services of a post-death cleaning company.
Soon after, Jenny appointed one she found online to treat, fumigate and thoroughly clean the place.
“Their charges appeared reasonable and they assured me of professional and honest services.
“The cleaners were supposed to show me what I wanted to keep or throw. It was agreed that the job involving eight workers including two supervisors would take about five days to complete.
“All was good in the beginning. They were punctual and work went on smoothly with me overseeing the cleaning.
“Small amounts of cash and coins apart from other items were recovered.
“I also gave away some of my brother’s things to the cleaners while most of it was packed up and thrown into a roro (roll-on/roll-off) truck belonging to the company,” Jenny said.
However, due to the grief of losing her brother, coupled with the odour from his remains lingering in the vicinity, she was overcome by emotions and let her guard down.
Jenny paid less attention in monitoring the clean-up, allowing the workers to freely gather as much as they could for disposal.
It was on the third day when things took an unpleasant turn.
“I watched the workers carrying out bags to a parked roro truck downstairs.
“Suddenly, my suspicions were aroused. I went straight to one of the supervisors and asked if I could look inside,” she said.
“When he opened one of the bags, there it was: a bag full of cash amounting to about RM30,000. He quickly made excuses and tried to wriggle his way out by saying he thought it was a bag of face masks.
“Can such a large quantity of cash be mistaken for face masks? How could they steal from a grieving family?” she asked.
Jenny notified the management of the company and they launched a probe.
As she wanted the work to be completed without disruptions, she chose to only lodge a “covering” police report at a nearby police station.
A “covering report” is a report made against a party as a precaution and to document an event under oath without seeking for investigations to be conducted on the case.
Jenny said the cleaning company offered to compensate her over the incident by returning half of the charges.
“I remain affected by it, wondering what else could have been taken away when I was not around to keep an eye.”
Jenny said she came forward to relate her bitter experience to warn those in similar situations to be wary of whom they hire to carry out such work.
“We need to closely supervise any cleaning work carried out by people we do not know and allow into our house,” she said.
