While the landlord decays: Group lives with Totem and gambles away his money!

Smyrna (Georgia, USA) - A brazen group of seven alleged thieving intruders is on trial in the US state of Georgia. The gang allegedly took up residence in a dead man's house and stole from him - while his body rotted in the bathtub!

"He was in a severe state of decomposition," Atlanta News First (ANF) quotes Detective Daniel Goduto, who was involved in the investigation.

In early October, Cobb County police were called to a home in the small town of Smyrna. Officers found the 71-year-old resident of the building, Robert W., dead in his bathtub. He had died of natural causes about three months earlier. On site, however, investigators also found evidence that someone else may have lived there.

"It had been ransacked. The drawers had been knocked over, his bedroom was completely ransacked," said Goduto. "But there were also items that suggested someone else was living there. The garbage looked as if it was regularly disposed of. It looked like there were things in the garbage can that were fairly new."

A day later, a neighbor called the police because he had seen strangers on the dead man's property. On the scene, emergency services found four suspects who were loading speakers and computers from the house into their car. The deceased's car, which had been parked in the driveway the day before, was also gone!

Police officers eventually found the dead senior citizen's car at a nearby petrol station - along with three other suspects!

"They had the victim's credit cards. They had some checks from him," Goduto said. "They had made purchases at the gas station. They played the lottery machines in the gas station with his money."

Now the septet is facing a slew of charges, including burglary and fraud.

"I mean, they broke into someone's house. They saw him lying dead on the floor and instead of saying, 'Hey, we screwed up, let's call 911, we found the guy dead,' they decided to just live there," Detective Goduto said.