Family fuming after coffin for 650-pound man didn’t fit in grave

A family in Spain waited hours to bury their 650-pound relative because his coffin didn’t fit into the designated cemetery plot, local media outlets report.

José Antonio, 28, died of complications during weight loss surgery, according to Jam Press. Family members insisted his final resting place be next to his late mother, who passed away last month.

Relatives say they informed the funeral company and authorities in Matagorda of the special circumstances beforehand.

The brother of the deceased, Alejandro Cortés, told the Spanish TV channel Antena 3 that the family knew immediately the coffin was too big for the allotted space.

“We said from the first hour that this was not possible,” he explained, according to a translation. The family tried to buy a second plot, but Cortés said they were told “no, not by law.”


Family members insisted his final resting place be next to his late mother, who passed away last month.
Family members insisted his final resting place be next to his late mother, who passed away last month.
Jam Press

“[The funeral home] told us to either behave well, or they would send us a couple of officers from the police and Civil Guard,” one family member said.

“We weren’t asking for anything bad, we were only asking for a decent burial,” the relative added.

But at the burial, the family reported waiting four hours for a solution.

The fire department eventually arrived to make the grave bigger.

They chipped away at the sides with an electric hammer and a chisel for over an hour until the coffin squeezed inside, per Jam Press.


At the burial, the family reported waiting four hours for the fire department to arrive to make the space bigger.
At the burial, the family reported waiting four hours for the fire department to arrive to make the space bigger.
Jam Press

Firefighters chipped away at the sides of the space with an electric hammer and chisel for over an hour until the coffin squeezed inside, per Jam Press.
Firefighters chipped away at the sides of the space with an electric hammer and chisel for over an hour until the coffin squeezed inside, per Jam Press.
Jam Press

Distressing burials are not uncommon. A New Jersey family filed a $50 million lawsuit last year after funeral home workers allegedly put the wrong woman in their mother’s casket — then jerked the container out of the grave in front of shocked mourners.

Also last year, an outraged family accused a Brooklyn funeral home of mishandling their loved one’s body so poorly that she looked like a “mud monster” the day of her wake.