Man appears at his 'funeral', says wanted to see who would turn up to mourn him

Baltazar Lemos has been conducting funerals for others for years. The 60-year-old Brazilian was shocked to see that there were only two mourners present at a service conducted by him recently.

The shock gave him an idea of holding a funeral for himself to find out who would turn up for him, reported local media.

On January 17, he posted a photo of himself on Facebook, standing in front of a hospital in Sao Paulo. And the next day, there was another post, informing his friends and family of the news of his sad demise.

Later, the details of his ‘farewell’ service also were announced on his Facebook page. He announced that the service would be held at Vatican chapel in Curitiba.

According to a report published by the mirror.co.uk, a video of the funeral showed a crowd of tearful mourners, some dabbing at their eyes with handkerchiefs, and they were in front of an altar on a low stage covered in wreaths and floral tributes.

Then, a figure with a bizarre silver hoodie over his face emerges from a door at the back and suddenly reveals himself as Lemos to the astonished crowd. "I've performed 889 farewell ceremonies in these last two years and at some ceremonies there were two people, at others there were 500 people. I wanted to know who would come to mine,” he told the crowd.

However, his friends and family were not happy about the incident. They got furious. He later asked for their forgiveness in another Facebook post.

• Offbeat
• Americas