Funeral freeloaders stalking Whangarei

Funeral feast freeloaders are on the prowl in Whangarei with one funeral home director unwilling to out the three professional mourners for fear of an altercation.

The revelation comes after a Wellington funeral home stopped a fake mourner who was gatecrashing funerals, eating the food on offer and taking more home in containers.

Freda Squire, of Newberrys Funeral Home, said she knew of three imposters who had been regularly attending funerals in Whangarei for at least five years.

The fake grievers, a couple aged between 50 and 60 who wear dirty clothes and a woman between 60 and 70, pretend to know the deceased, give a faux eulogy, load their plates up and leave.

Ms Squire said she had become familiar with the imposters as they would phone beforehand and ask about the funeral for "Mr X," and whether or not a cup of tea would be available.

"They say 'can I turn up?' and sometimes I say 'no'.

"They say 'how do you know it's me?' and I say 'I can recognise your voice'."

If no refreshments were on offer, the professional mourners would not show.

"Sometimes they get up and talk and the family are whispering to each other, 'Who is that?"'

One of the women would always say the same thing, Ms Squire said. "I could almost mouth the words.

"She would always say 'I'm really going to miss so and so, but I guess it comes to us all at the end of the day'."

After the speeches, the fake mourners would be the first into the lounge to "load their plates up", Ms Squire said.

On occasion she would ask them how they knew the deceased and they would pretend to have gone to school with them, but it was obvious they were inventing the story as their ages often didn't match up.

She chose not to tell family members what was going on, out of respect.

"I wouldn't tell them there were gatecrashers.

"An altercation would be the last thing they would want."

Ms Squire said she didn't believe the professional mourners were hungry.

"Maybe we need to look at the loneliness factor" - although she admitted they didn't interact much with other guests.

"It's outrageous. Most people will talk about past good times but they tend to just eat and go."

Funeral Directors Association president Tony Garing said it was difficult to stop people from attending, or to call their behaviour theft, because funerals were usually public events.

"The easiest thing would be to take the person aside and have a quiet word if it became persistent and it was clear they were only coming for food."

It was possible for funeral home directors to give professional mourners a trespass notice to bar them from entering their business, he said.

"This could be tricky as they might have a legitimate reason to be there."

Squire Funeral Services in Kaikohe, Rodney Funeral Services in Wellsford, and Morris and Morris in Whangarei say they haven't noticed any professional mourners.

- APN