Back to Stupid Criminals 5 ~ Mystery Question

Back to Stupid Criminals 5 is this week’s Mystery Question. I can’t believe how stupid some of these criminals are! But first the photo and verse.

The rose bush was planted back in 1975, and it’s still blooming! I love the color–it starts out kind of pinkish, then turns this beautiful color of yellow. And I thought this verse in Isaiah was a good one for the photo.

Now on to last week’s Mystery Question. Four stories, three are true, one is false. Can you spot the false one?

1. 1. Thieves stole $98,000 worth of ramen noodles from a trailer park which brings a couple of questions to mind. Why was there $98,000 dollars worth of the noodles in a trailer park? And just plain, why?
   2. A man caught his cousin stealing a bottle of Lysol and some soap, but when he saw that he’d stolen his cheese grater, he called the cops.
   3. It was Black Friday and only one parking spot was available. Just before the driver who had arrived first pulled into the spot, a small BMW sports car whipped into the space. Instead of exchanging angry words, the driver who had his spot stolen waited until the other driver went into the mall. Then he hooked a chain to the bumper of the BMW and attached it to a concrete piling.  Unfortunately, video was grainy and could not identify him.
   4. While an elderly man waited patiently in line for a free cheese sample in a grocery store, another man swaggered up and snatched his sample. When he did it a second time at another kiosk, the elderly man had had enough. Instead of brushing it off, angry words were exchanged and soon fists were thrown and the cops were called.

And the answer is…believe it or not, #1 is true! I’m still trying to figure out why anyone would steal that many ramen noodles! My apologies, the noodles were stolen from a trailer parked at a Georgia convenience store–not from a trailer park! The one I made up is #3.

Now onto this week’s Mystery Question. Three of the following insurance scams really happened. One didn’t. I made it up. Can you guess which one?

1. A man planned to fake his funeral and collect the $500,000 dollars. He involved his wife and a friend, but at the last minute, the wife and friend actually killed her husband and set it up to look like an accident. The insurance company paid off, but an insurance investigator smelled a mouse and dug into the case. The victim had bragged about scamming the insurance company to a drinking buddy and eventually the wife was arrested.
2. This rock band wasn’t particularly successful but its members, unlike most starving musicians, weren’t prepared to suffer for their art. Instead for quick money, they decided to stage a car accident and deliberately inflicted vehicle damage in an underground garage, then they told a tale of pain and suffering that started the claim money rolling in. to the tune of more than $150,000. Then, their music career took a sudden upward turn when they scored a great gig. And therein lay the problem. Some of their claims coincided with their music gigs where they were jumping up and down on stage.
3. Maybe Joe (not his real name) was jealous of the checks his friend was receiving or maybe he simply saw an opportunity. Either way, his scheme was inspired by his friend’s car accident and the prospect of a claims payout for himself as well. Joe declared that he, too, had been in the car, filed a claim and began receiving checks. It all seemed to be going well until the driver of the other car involved in the collision pointed out to investigators that no one matching Joe’s description was in the friend’s car.
4. An adjuster interviewed a man at his house on a routine stolen boat claim. The insured said his 21-foot vessel was stolen from his locked garage. It didn’t take a high-tech tool to discover this fraud with just a measuring tape: The garage was only 18 feet long.

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

Now for this week’s Blast from the Past. I’m featuring Justice Delivered, the fourth book in the Memphis Cold Case Series. Here’s the cover and back copy:

Carly Smith came by her trust issues honestly. A victim of sex trafficking, she’s been at the mercy of merciless men, ignored by law enforcement officers who should have helped her, and seemingly rejected by her family. She can’t even trust herself to do the right thing. Though she escaped her captors and is working hard on building a new life, the past continues to haunt her when she discovers that the man she couldn’t bring herself to report to police for fear of reliving her captivity is still out there, luring vulnerable girls under the guise of being a modeling agent.

When her own niece is kidnapped, Carly must overcome her fears and come forward with the information she has before it’s too late. When that proves to be not enough, she’ll have to go after the perpetrators herself.

I wrote Justice Delivered after a presentation about human trafficking at our church. Before that, I had no idea of how bad it was. In the book, I deal with the emotional impact on survivors. You can find out more about Justice Delivered here.

Now for today’s song. This is one of my favorite Vince Gill songs.

Thanks for reading my blog and my books!