As a safety net, insurance not only provides coverage when routine losses occur, but for bizarre exposures as well. That fact was vividly confirmed when National Underwriter asked readers for their strangest claims stories. Indeed, perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from these unusual tales is to steer clear of animals, no matter how harmless they might appear to be.

For example, Michael Burroughs, workers' compensation unit leader for Montgomery Insurance in Charlotte, N.C., wrote about a physical education teacher who had injured her knee while playing with one of her classes. During her recovery, the teacher would stop in at the school to pick up her check and visit with the staff.

After one such trip, Burroughs wrote, "while on her way out the door, [the teacher] heard something in one of the large trash bins. Inquisitively, she hobbled over on her crutches to see what the noise was, and as she got to the trash bin and looked inside...out jumped a squirrel!"

The squirrel startled the teacher, causing her to jump back to try to get away -- exacerbating her existing injury. "To this day," Burroughs wrote, "we are still trying to track down that squirrel to try to subrogate our losses!"

And it's not just workers' comp or general liability carriers that have to cope with animal-related claims. Auto insurers should also be on the alert.

"As an agent of only five years at the time, the strangest claim I had ever heard was when one of my insureds called to report an attack by buffalo to his van," wrote Sue Vargovich, an agent with Effler Schmitt Company in Toledo, Ohio.

The insured had been driving through an animal safari, and the car in front of him had been feeding the animals before moving on, Vargovich wrote.

"It was then that several buffalo decided they were still hungry and started pushing the front of the vehicle, ramming and ramming until the hood and front end were damaged." Luckily, she added, the insured was able to make his escape.

Rachel Lightfoot, a senior compliance analyst with Merastar Auto & Home Insurance in Chattanooga, Tenn., also wrote in about animals with a strange "herd" mentality. "My dad does work as a geologist and hydrologist, often having to take soil and water samples," she wrote. "Once he had to park in a field in

which some cows were grazing."

The cows were far enough from the car that he didn't worry about them, Lightfoot said, noting that her father went about the business of collecting his samples.

"When he came back to his car some time later, he found it surrounded by cows who were rubbing against it, biting it, kicking, etc.," Lightfoot wrote. "He couldn't tell whether the cows felt attracted or threatened. When he was finally able to get them away from his car, Dad found strange scratches and dents everywhere except the roof."

Her father called to ask if this damage would be covered, and Lightfoot said "that definitely met the definition of 'other than collision.' "

Tim Ward, an executive vice president at Senn Dunn in Greensboro, N.C., wrote of a similarly strange experience, suggesting that the answer to the cows' bizarre behavior may not have been in where Lightfoot's father had parked, but where he had been beforehand.

Ward sent in his tale of an insured driving back from an unsuccessful fishing trip on the coast. As he was driving, the insured decided to take one last try at catching something, and stopped to fish in a friend's farm pond in the middle of a cow pasture.

"A herd of cows gathered around the car while he was fishing, but he thought nothing of it until he got ready to leave. As he approached the car he saw a cow chewing on something that was long and black. Each time the cow chewed, the black object bobbed up and down," Ward wrote.

"Curious, he walked over a little closer and realized that the cow was chewing on his windshield wiper! He ran screaming to his car, waving his arms and shooing the cows, only to discover that they had licked his auto from one end to the other, and had eaten the rubber seals from around the windows," he added.

The reason for such strange behavior is fairly simple, he wrote. "Cows like salt," Ward explained. "His car had been parked next to the ocean for two days. They saw it as a huge salt lick."

The insured called to explain what had happened. "He said his car was covered with gooey slobber, the paint was ruined, and all the windows were jangling as he rode along because there was no rubber to hold them in place," Ward wrote. "He wanted to know if comprehensive coverage was really comprehensive."

Luckily for the insured, it was, and the carrier paid the claim to repaint the car and replace the seals.

This article originally appeared in The National Underwriter P&C. For the complete article, please click here.

Special Reports /

Wacky Claims: Cows, and Squirrels, and Buffalo, Oh My!

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