SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 59-year-old Utah man who wrote his own obituary before he died last week used the opportunity to come clean.

Friends and family of Val Patterson learned Sunday that the man they thought held a doctorate from the University of Utah received the degree thanks to a paperwork mistake and that he never even graduated.

Patterson died from throat cancer on July 10. KSL-TV reports he wrote his own death notice in the first person last fall.

The light-hearted obituary published in the Salt Lake Tribune (http://bit.ly/NDqHRp ) also includes a confession to stealing a business’ safe. He wrote: “As it turns out, I AM the guy who stole the safe from the Motor View Drive Inn back in June, 1971.”

His widow, Mary Jane, told KSL-TV the confessions are true.

As an obituary reader (when you stop laughing, you may continue), I found this AP article very interesting and wish it ran locally. It definitely would have caught my eye as it has the media’s.

Would you be as courageous (or cowardly) and do the same as this man, spilling your life’s indiscretions in a final obituary knowing no one can confront you? I don’t think I would, but maybe I’m in the minority. Give me your 2cents on this one.