Man allegedly posed as dead mom

NEW YORK, June 17 (UPI) -- New York authorities said a man donned a dress, wig and makeup to impersonate his dead mother and collect Social Security and rent subsidies.

Thomas Prusik-Parkin, 49, allegedly took a page from Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" to pose as his mother and collect $115,000 in benefits from the government, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

"I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath, so I am my mother," police quoted Prusik-Parkin as saying at the time of his arrest, in an ominous parallel to Hitchcock's 1960 film starring Anthony Perkins as a man who commits murders while believing himself to be his dead mother.

Authorities said the real Irene Prusik died in 2003 at age 73. They said Prusik-Parkin immediately developed his mother personae, including a fake ID and a fake "nephew" to defraud the government.

Prusik-Parkin was arraigned Wednesday on charges of grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy linked to a deed and mortgage fraud scheme.