Thanks to Mandi Woodruff and Zachry Floro from Business Insider, we get to share a few of the dumbest insurance scams of the past decade.
1. “Terrible Cooking” Sets Home Ablaze, Along with…Convertible?
The Daily Star reported that Nicholas Di Puma of Delaware: “tried to put the fire out with a dishrag, but the dishrag caught fire, so he took one pan and threw it out the front door, where it landed in the backseat of the convertible. He then took the second pan and was going to throw it out, but tripped over a box, and the pan landed on a leather couch, igniting it. Di Puma ran outside to get two hoses, but there was only one there, so he attempted to put out the fire in the convertible.”
Di Puma was sentenced to five years probation and was forced to pay $37,997 in restitution.
2. 49 Slip-and-Falls
72 year old Philadelphia native, Isabel Parker, pulled off a minimum of 49 slip-and-falls at an array of supermarkets, liquor stores, and department stores. All of the claims totaled approximately $500,000, which she accomplished with 47 different aliases and 11 separate addresses. From 2003 to 2007, the only place she could slip and fall was in her own home. She was sentenced to four years of house arrest.
3. Ghost Rider
Clayton Daniels, 27 and wife, Molly Daniels, 25, orchestrated a scam to collect a $110,000 insurance policy. Clayton dug into the grave of an 81-year-old woman, put his clothing on her corpse, burned the body beyond recognition, and left the body in his vehicle. Molly attempted to collect the insurance policy, claiming the body in the car was her husband and he had obviously been killed in a car accident. Clayton was found alive with a new hair color, and Molly landed a cell in prison for 30 years.