Back to Stupid Criminals 10 ~ Mystery Question

Back to Stupid Criminals 10 is this week’s Mystery Question. These are a lot of fun to research, and I hope you enjoy them, but first the photo and verse.

I took the photo one afternoon when I went into my backyard to feed the neighborhood cats. The sky looked like it was on fire. I “just happened” to have my phone and snapped the photo. I love that verse and thought it fit the photo.

Now on to last week’s Mystery Question. Insurance fraud drains more than $50 BILLION from insurers each year, adding anywhere from $400 to $700 a year in increased premiums. Here are four frauds. Three actually happened. I made up one. Can you guess which one?

Two men used a pole saw (a saw attached to a pole that is used to saw off tree limbs) to cut off a third man’s hand in order to collect over $600,000.
Four women invented a man, faked his death and staged a funeral so they could collect over a million dollars. When the insurance companies involved began their investigation, they dug the body up and put a mannequin and cow parts in the casket and then sent the casket to the crematory. They then filed paperwork stating the man had been cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
An elderly woman ran out of funds for her gambling addiction and staged forty-nine slip-and-fall scams, collecting over $500,000 before she was outed.
When a man’s ceiling cracked, he knew his homeowner’s insurance wouldn’t pay for the repair, so he waited for a rainstorm, climbed up into his attic, and poured out a gallon of water above the ceiling. Unfortunately, the adjuster climbed up on the roof that the insurance company had replaced just a year earlier and couldn’t find any place where the roof could have leaked.

And the correct answer is…#4! I really had a hard time believing #1 and 2! Congrats to all who guessed correctly!

Now for this week’s Back to Stupid Criminals 10 Mystery Question. As usual three are true and one is made up. Can you guess which one?

Two ten-year-old boys set up a lemonade stand and were doing good business. Unfortunately, their success came to the attention of an idiot who robbed them after first giving them an IOU complete with his real name for a glass of lemonade. Made it easy for the cops to track him down.
Two men were arrested after breaking into a Best Buy because one of them accidentally dialed 9-1-1.
A man broke into an escape room, picked up a cell phone left on the front desk, a TV remote, and a cold beer. Then he couldn’t get out and panicked, calling 9-1-1.
Two men successfully robbed a pub, but they didn’t realize a retirement party for a cop was going on. When the cops discovered what was going on, they chased down the suspects.

Okay, Super Sleuths, which one did I make up? Leave your answers in the comments, and I’ll enter you in a drawing for something…

Now for a blast from the past! This week it’s Counter Attack, Book 1 in the Pearl Springs series. In this first book, the killer uses chess moves to taunt the police. It’d been years since I’d played chess, and I’d never been a great player, so I posted on Facebook, asking if any chess masters would be willing to help me. A reader offered her brother, who was a chess master, and he was gracious enough to plot out the murders for me with chess moves. I had a lot of fun with this book! You can find buy links here.

Alexis Stone has no sooner been sworn in as the chief deputy for Russell County, Tennessee, when a serial killer dubbed the Queen’s Gambit Killer strikes again–this time in her hometown. Pearl Springs is just supposed to be a temporary stop along the way to Alex’s real dream: becoming the first female police chief of Chattanooga. But the killer’s calling card–a white pawn and a note with a chess move printed on it–cannot be ignored.

Pearl Springs chief of police Nathan Landry can’t believe that his high school sweetheart Alexis is back in town. (He refuses to call her Alex) Nathan can’t help wanting to protect the woman he never stopped loving. But as the danger mounts and the killer closes in, can Nathan come through on the promises he makes to himself to bring a killer to justice before it’s too late?

Now for this week’s song. This has been a favorite of mine for more years than I can remember. Jim Reeves is one of my favorite singers. Put them together and you get this beautiful song.