New Yorker Allegedly Mooched Off Dead Mother’s Public Pension

New York State resident Janet Chatley retired from the Livingston County Department of Social Services in 1994 and, even though she’s long dead, receives $1,000 a month through her public pension.

That is until this month when an anonymous tipster finally told the State of New York the truth:

Janet Chatley died Jan. 5, 2020.

Taxpayers are out $35,000.

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Where did all that money go?

That cash allegedly went straight to Chatley’s daughter, Patricia Chatley, who concealed her mother’s death for four years. 

“According to the investigation, between January of 2020 and June 30, 2022, Chatley allegedly collected a total of 30 unauthorized payments that were meant for her deceased mother totaling $34,548,” according to DiNapoli’s office. 

“Chatley, who works for the Dalton-Nunda Central School District and is a New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) member, failed to notify the bank or NYSLRS of her mother’s death and continued to collect and transfer the pension fund payments to her personal account. Forensic auditors traced the stolen money from the bank accounts, which Chatley held jointly with her mother, to her personal account, from which she withdrew it and spent it.”

Authorities arrested Patricia Chatley last week and charged her with Grand Larceny in the third degree. 

So how did Chatley allegedly trick the State of New York?

Did she hide her mother’s corpse in a fruit cellar (like Norman Bates)?

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Did she take a page from Weekend at Bernie’s and tote her mother’s corpse around town?

Actually…no.

Google the name Janet Chatley. You’ll immediately find not one but two of her obituaries. Both were published the week of her death.

Janet Chatley had five children. She was survived by one sibling, a sister. A lot of people knew she was dead. 

One would think that somehow, someway, the State of New York would have procedures in place to learn that Janet Chatley was no longer among us. 

But…..no.

And that begs the question:

How many other dead people in this country are still getting public benefits?

Special thanks to Warhammer’s Wife for proofreading this story before publication to make certain there were no misspellings, grammatical errors or other embarrassing mistakes and/or typos. Follow Warhammer on Twitter (or is it X Now?) @Real_Warhammer