MEMPHIS, TN -
(WMC TV) - Few scams are more disgusting than when someone rips off the family of a military veteran at his own funeral.
As part of his funeral planning, Air Force veteran Clarence Corter bought a casket from Celestial Burials after seeing the company's ad in a veterans magazine.
When he died, the company told his widow Betty his casket would be shipped to the funeral home in 24 hours.
It didn't show.
"We were going to the viewing," she said. "When we got to the funeral home, he was lying on a table."
Corter and her family had to cough up another $3,500 on the spot to properly bury her husband.
Postal inspectors caught wind of the case, pursued Celestial Burials and charged its owner Joe Stabile with pre-paid burial fraud. Inspectors discovered almost 5,000 more victims of Stabile's bait-and-switch, nearly all of them World War II veterans and their families.
Investigators and prosecutors said Stabile took them all for $2.4 million.
"The judge said there was no doubt in his mind that given the opportunity, (Stabile) would do it all over again," said U.S. Postal Inspector Don Rood.
While planning your burial, cremation or funeral, always research funeral homes and cemeteries with both your state's funeral directors regulator and the Better Business Bureau. Don't simply trust an ad or commercial.
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