Cigars and Insurance -- True Story

A Charlotte, NC man, having purchased a case of very rare, very
expensive cigars, insured them against fire among other things. Within a month,
having smoked his entire stockpile of cigars and without having made
even his first premium payment on the policy, the man filed a claim
against the insurance company. In his claim, the man stated the cigars were lost
"in a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing
the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal
fashion.The man sued . . .and won.

In delivering the ruling the judge agreeing that the claim was
frivolous,stated nevertheless that the man held a policy from the company in
which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed
thatit would insure against fire, without defining what it considered to
be "unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process the insurance
company accepted the ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare
cigars he lost in "the fires." After the man cashed the check, however, the
company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. With his own
insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him,
the man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and
sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine!

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Something to think about the next time you're having a bad day
(article in
CALIFORNIA EXAMINER, 3-20-98)

Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burnt out section
of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased
male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with a dive tank, flippers,
& face mask. A post mortem examination revealed that the person died
not from burns but from massive internal injuries. Dental records

provided a positive identification. Investigators then set about
determining how a fully clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest
fire. It was revealed that, on the day of the fire, the person went
for a diving trip off the coast - some 20 miles away from the forest. The
firefighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible,
called in a fleet of helicopters with very large buckets. The buckets were
dropped into the ocean for rapid filling, then flown to the forest
fire & emptied. You guessed it... One minute our diver was making like
Flipper in the Pacific, the next he was doing a breaststroke in a fire bucket
300 feet in the air! Apparently, he extinguished exactly 5'10" of the
fire.

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-------------->Sounds like that old urban legend but I haven't heard this version and it is funny,,,BArb

STILL HAVING A BAD DAY? THINK AGAIN! The following is taken from a
Florida newspaper:

A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio & his wife was in
the kitchen. The man was racing the engine on the motorcycle; somehow the
motorcycle slipped into gear. The man, still holding the handlebars,
was dragged through a glass patio door & the motorcycle dumped onto the
floor inside the house. The wife, hearing the crash, ran into the dining
room, and found her husband laying on the floor, cut & bleeding, the
motorcycle laying next to him & the patio door shattered. The wife ran to the
phone & summoned an ambulance. Because they lived on a fairly large hill, the
wife went down the several flights of long steps to the street to direct
the paramedics to her husband. After the ambulance arrived & transported
the husband to the hospital, the wife up righted the motorcycle & pushed
it outside. Seeing that gas had spilled on the floor, the wife obtained
some papers towels, blotted up the gasoline, & threw the towels in the
toilet.

The husband was treated at the hospital & then released to come home.
After arriving home, he looked at the shattered patio door & the
damage done to his motorcycle. He became despondent, went into the bathroom,
sat on the toilet & smoked a cigarette. After finishing the cigarette, he
flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl while still seated.
The wife heard a loud explosion & her husband screaming! She ran into the
bathroom & found her husband laying on the floor. His trousers had
been blown away & he was suffering from burns on the buttocks, back of his
legs & his groin. The wife again ran to the phone & called for an
ambulance.

The same ambulance crew was dispatched & the wife again met them at
the street. The paramedics loaded the husband on the stretcher & began
carrying him to the street. While they were going down the stairs to
the street accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked her how
the husband had burned himself. She told them & the paramedics started
laughing so hard, one of them tipped the stretcher & dumped the
husband out. He fell down the remaining steps & broke his arm.

Now THAT is a bad day.....