Star of David Funeral Home, Owned by Houston-based Service Corporation International
Armando Sardina
Tamarac, Florida
After passing away from an apparent heart attack, the deceased man’s hard-earned cash was almost stolen by a funeral service worker who came to pick up his body, police said.
But Louise Bressler’s vigilance helped stop the man now accused of stealing from her deceased son.
Michael Bressler, 53, died Thursday, in his Tamarac bedroom, after selling hot dogs all afternoon in Deerfield Beach, his family said.
Once the body was ready to be removed, the family contacted the Star of David Funeral Home, owned by Houston-based Service Corporation International.
With grieving family members standing nearby, funeral service employee Armando Sardina, 56, came to the house to pick up the body. Sardina then asked to be left alone with the body and shut himself inside Bressler’s bedroom, said Louise Bressler.
Moments later, as Bressler’s body was being taken away, Louise Bressler said she noticed that a bag previously containing a stack of cash was empty. She remembered tossing the bag onto the bed after discovering it near her son’s body earlier in the day.
Family members confronted Sardina, who denied taking any cash. Bressler’s brother-in-law, Bruce Lauer, spoke to a Broward sheriff’s deputy who was still at the scene filling out paperwork, according to investigators. Sardina allowed the deputy to search the van, according to an arrest affidavit.
The deputy found $327 in cash tucked between the funeral home van’s seats.
Sardina asked for the family’s forgiveness and tried to hug Lauer, according to the affidavit. Sardina has been charged with one count of grand theft, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
“Losing a son is painful. To do this to our family only made things worse,” Louise Bressler said.
Family members on Monday recalled Bressler as a hard-working father of two boys who sold hot dogs for more than a decade in front of the Brands Mart USA store in Deerfield Beach.
More than 300 friends and family members attended his memorial service last weekend.
Jessica McDunn, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Service Corporation International, said that Sardina was promptly fired.
“Unfortunately, situations like this do arise on occasion,” McDunn said.
Authorities ask anyone who believes they may have been similarly victimized by Sardina to contact their local law enforcement agency.
Funeral homes owned by Houston-based Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI) can be identified by the “Dignity Memorial” logo.
