Back to Stupid Criminals 6 ~ Mystery Question

Patricia Bradley Mystery Question 40 Comments

Back to Stupid Criminals 6 is this week’s Mystery Question. I liked the insurance scams so well, I decided to find a few more.

But first, the photo and verse. I love contrails almost as much as I love clouds. 🙂 These particular contrails were so interesting, I snapped a photo with my phone as I walked one afternoon. The verse was engraved over the cafeteria of one of the schools in Memphis, Tennessee, back when I went to school. It’s also a verse I’ve leaned on many times.

Now on to last 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.

And the answer is…#1. Can you believe what people think they can get away with?

Now this week’s Mystery Question. As usual, three of the stories are true and one I made up. Leave your guess as to which one is false in the comments, and I’ll enter you in the drawing for something!
  1. A man dropped his television set and it tumbled down the basement stairs. The insurance company replaced the set with a new one. The insured bragged to a co-worker about the prompt and efficient service he received from his insurer. She told her husband who soon afterward called his own insurance company to report that he had dropped his set and taken it to the dump. Unfortunately for him, the same insurance adjuster handled both claims. He went to the dump and discovered that the make, model and the serial number of the TV set in the second case were the same as in the earlier case.
  2. A beautiful piece of sculpture was stolen in a home break-in. Its owner filed two claims for the theft of the same sculpture one in English and one in French. Fortunately, the claims adjuster was bilingual and spotted the scam.
  3. A man turned in a claim stating his patio furniture had been stolen off his balcony. The company was about to pay the claim when someone checked the address and discovered the man lived in a building with no balconies.
  4. A man said he was standing in his bathtub taking a shower when suddenly his whole house shook. He slipped and suffered a nasty injury. Apparently, a passing motorist had lost control of his truck and slammed into the house. The local paper had carried a story about the accident. It quoted an eyewitness who was standing outside the house at the time and saw the whole thing. Unfortunately for the claimant, the eyewitness was the same guy who filed the claim.

Okay, Super Sleuths, which story did I make up? Leave your answer in the comments and I’ll enter you in a drawing for something! I’ll be traveling today, so I may be late answering comments, but I will!

Now for a blast from the past! This week it’s Standoff, the first book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series. I had a blast traveling all over Natchez, researching this series. Natchez is a beautiful town in Southwest Mississippi and is the terminus of the Natchez Trace. 

Standoff by Patricia Bradley

The Natchez Trace National Parkway stretches 444 miles from Nashville to Natchez, the oldest town on the Mississippi River. It’s the perfect road for a relaxed pleasure drive. Unfortunately for park ranger Luke Fereday, lately it’s being used to move drugs. Sent to Natchez to infiltrate the organization at the center of the drug ring, Luke arrives too late to a stakeout and discovers the body of his friend, park ranger John Danvers.
John’s daughter Brooke is determined to investigate her father’s murder, but things are more complicated than they first appear, and Brooke soon finds herself the target of a killer who will do anything to silence her. Luke will have his hands full keeping her safe. But who’s going to keep him safe when he realizes he’s falling–hard–for the daughter of the man he failed to save?

It’s available in KU  or you can purchase it on Amazon.

Now for today’s song. Jim Reeves has long been a favorite singer and this is a favorite song.

 

 

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Comments 40

  1. Priscilla Bettis

    Pretty sky picture. That’s cool that those Bible verses are written over a school cafeteria. This week I think you made up number 4 because it’s the only one with a person getting hurt instead of something getting stolen/broken.

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  7. Edward Arrington

    I agree with you about those contrails, Pat. I especially notice them when traveling on major highways when the traffic is light. I try to imagine which airports the planes are flying into or out of. Great scripture selection.

    I enjoyed the song, even the scratching of the needle on the vinyl at the beginning and ending. 🙂

    I think #1 has to be made up. I can see someone trying to get away with something like that, but I can’t quite picture an insurance adjuster going to the dump to verify the information. How would they find “the” TV without the make, model, and serial number? If they had that information in hand, what would be the need of going to the dump? It sounds like someone besides the criminal was stupid.

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  10. Tim Johnson

    Beautiful photo. I’m another big fan of contrails. Living so close to Davis-Monthan AFB, I get to see a lot of them when the conditions are right. That’s a great Scripture to keep in mind, too.

    I don’t even know where to begin with these insurance fraud cases. However, I think Edward is on to something. First, why would an insurance company pay a claim for damage caused by the owner’s clumsiness, and for the amount of a new TV to replace it? And, as Edward pointed out, just knowing that both claims were for the same TV made one of them fraudulent. I also believe you made up #1.

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  20. Dottie

    I’m excited to read another series about this location. I will say it again, the fourth book in this series, Deception, is one of my all time favorite books! It had me guessing till the very end and I was wishing for a book 5, I didn’t want the series to end.
    Maybe someday??

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