Posted on 10/13/2008 1:21:23 PM PDT by BGHater
Burdened by debt and driving home from a night of gambling in West Virginia, Sergio Lopez launched a scheme that at the time must have seemed like a good idea.
He pulled his Volkswagen Jetta up to a random corner in Silver Spring, doused the interior with gasoline, set it on fire and walked away. He later made a claim to Nationwide Insurance. The car was missing, he said -- someone must have stolen it.
Add Lopez, who pleaded guilty in the case this year, to the band of Washington area residents who have torched their cars hoping for a quick insurance check. A Baltimore police officer did it. So did a Baltimore firefighter. A Prince William County resident burned a minivan for a friend.
Investigators estimate that hundreds of such crimes occurred in the Washington area in the past two years, although the exact number is unclear, and experts predict the number will increase because of the worsening economy. Many offenders have fallen behind on payments to car dealerships. This year, more people are behind on such loans than in nearly two decades.
"With what's just happened to the economy in the last week," said Donald Galbreath, a longtime fraud investigator for the insurance industry, "I see the trend will get worse."
Last year, Alexandria residents Yesenia Gomez and her husband, Jose Reyes, fell behind on payments on their 2007 Dodge Caravan. According to prosecutors, a middle school pal of Gomez's, Daybin Rodriguez, told Gomez that he'd burned a car in the past and could do so again.
Gomez decreased the minivan policy's deductible, and a week later the vehicle was found torched in Mason Neck State Park in Lorton, prosecutors said. She and Rodriguez have since entered pleas to destruction of property charges. Charges against Reyes were dropped.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The Turtle wins in the end.
It's alot easier to find a job without a felony arson charge on your records.
You can get away with this in Paris.
But Obozo said I have a RIGHT to a new car!!!!!
Blue staters?
Farfegnuggen en flambe!
Stupid is strong in this one... < /yoda>
With this in mind, the night before Halloween ought to be a real burner in Detroit.
Those of us who pay our debts need to thank these dopes for increases in our insurance policies.
They dump them in canals here in Florida. Seems like a lot of illegals do this. In FL, they go after the owners for fraud when the pull the cars out of the canals or rockpits.
Isn't getting a new car a commandment or an amendment or something?
At this point I wouldn’t rule it out of someones platform. No kidding.
Lopez, Gomez, Reyes, Rodriquez — there seems to be some connection between these names, but I just can’t seem to put my finger on it.
In getting to know one another, one golfer had moved to Arizona after he got the insurance money from a fire that had destroyed his company.
The other said he moved after he got the insurance money from a flood that wiped out his company.
The golfer who got his insurance money from the fire seemed puzzled for the remainder of the round.
Afterwards when they were having a beer at the 19th Hole, he asked the other golfer, "Tell me something. How do you start a flood?"
Not that I condone criminal activity, but if you’re going to do insurance fraud, don’t be so obvious about it. “I just happened to lower my deductable a week before, good thing.” Yeah, right. “Someone torched it for no reason.” Suuure.
People shouldn’t be so dumb. Don’t torch it, that’s insurance fraud. Leave it in a bad neighborhood with the keys on the dash, then it will get stolen outright. Worst the insurance company could get you for then is negligence, much better than fraud and arson.
Be more effective to leave your keys in the car near the food court in a mall in a big city
Go shop and come out, and it really will be stolen.
Be sure to leave personal items in it, or it’s too obvious.
Guaranteed keyings at the very least.
No sympathy. None whatsoever.
LOL! We used to call this type of disaster/insurance claim “Italian lightning” in New York.
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