Shoshanna Utchenik
ticklethewire.com
In a real-life twist on Hitchcock’s “Psycho” character Norman Bates, it seems a New York man who impersonated his dead mother wanted to keep her credit line alive.
Thomas Parkin, 51, of Brooklyn, was sentenced Monday to a minimum of 13 years and eight months in prison, for a real estate scam involving his late mother’s estate, reports Reuters.
Parkin addressed investigators while wearing a woman’s cardigan, lipstick, and breathing through an oxygen tank, claiming he was his late mother, Irene Pruskin, who died in 2003. She would have been 86 by now. He also was caught on surveillance video in the get-up at the DMV, renewing Pruskin’s driver’s licence.
In addition to trying to file a lawsuit as his mother, reclaiming her lost Park Slope home, the presumptuous Parkin and his partner also stole about $44,000 by cashing Pruskin’s Social Security checks for six years.
Mr. Dressup was convicted this month in state court of fraud, grand larceny, forgery and perjury. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office handled the case.
“He fooled no one,” a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told Reuters.
Hopefully the prison jumpsuits won’t cramp Parkin’s style too much.
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