USA: Officer finds body in home - then takes over property and steals deceased's identity

A Florida police officer who was called to check on a 71-year-old man found him dead and allegedly launched a scheme to take over his home, worth about $400,000. For years, he used the deceased's details, forged his signature, renovated the property with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even claimed to be his friend. The fraud was exposed when the deceased's relatives sold the house and the new buyers encountered the officer.

A Florida police officer, Bryan Lewis Seguros (35), was arrested on suspicion of taking over the home of a 71-year-old man he found dead during a welfare check in July 2022, stealing his identity, and impersonating him for years. According to the suspicion, Seguros invested at least $214,000 of his own money in renovating the house, valued at around $400,000, using police databases to locate the deceased's personal details, forging his signature on official documents, and paying electricity, water, and property tax bills in his name. The affair was exposed in August 2025, when a real estate company that purchased the house from West's legal heirs encountered Seguros at the property. He filed a civil lawsuit against the company to recover the renovation costs, which led to an investigation. Seguros was charged with five offenses, including breach of trust in a public role and criminal use of a deceased person's identification, and was released on $25,000 bail. Marty Kiar, the county's property appraiser, said, "Instead of the officer enforcing the law, he is breaking it."