VIENNA, March 23: The grieving family just wanted to see the body one last time before his cremation. But peeking into the coffin for the final farewell they got a shock: it was someone else.
The 90-year-old had in fact been buried three days earlier in someone else’s grave, the embarrassed firm of undertakers in the southern town of Weiz admitted on Tuesday.
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And inside the coffin ready to be given up to the flames was an 86-year-old man whose family thought they had already said their final goodbye to days before.
Andreas Adlmann from funeral directors Koller-Adlmann told a newspaper that an employee “had not taken proper notice of the toe tags”.
“This was a human error that should never have happened,” he said. In future a record will be made for every cadaver that will be signed by two people, he promised.
As the family of the 90-year-old waited at the crematorium, his coffin was quickly dug up, cleaned up and brought over.
And the 86-year-old was buried where he should have been, as a priest looked on and gave the necessary consecration.
