From Death Rays To Pole Dancers, Readers Share Some Very Weird Losses

From four-legged vandals escaping police custody to a modern-day twist on Archimedes' ancient death ray, most insurance professionals have a war story or two about weird and unusual claims they've seen over the years. This time around, National Underwriter readers shared humorous tales, accounts that raise interesting questions about who is responsible for a loss, and even one story that comes straight from a major motion picture.

In the 1999 movie “Fight Club,” Edward Norton's character narrates how his 15th floor condo was completely destroyed by an explosion. He said the stove's pilot light went out, and the condo became filled with gas. Then the refrigerator's compressor clicked on, causing a spark that ignited the gas, destroying the entire condo (yet remarkably sparing all of his neighbors' dwellings because of the condo's concrete walls).

Some may come away from the narrative wondering if something like that could ever happen in real life–and if so, what the end result would look like. For Doug McKinney, agency principal and president of McKinney Insurance in Asheville, N.C., this question was more than academic, thanks to a claim he worked on in the mid-1970s.

At the time, Mr. McKinney recalled, he was working at Nationwide and training under a more experienced adjuster. The two went to see the damage caused by a filed claim, and arrived at a small frame, asbestos shingle-type house.

The house was off of its foundation by about four-to-six inches, according to Mr. McKinney, and the sheet rock was “sucked off the wall” in one room and damaged in all the other rooms. Additionally, there was a hole in the roof.

In this case, the culprit was not the stove but rather the hot-water heater. The investigation into the claim determined–just as in “Fight Club”–that the pilot went out, gas built up while the residents were away on an extended vacation, and when the nearby refrigerator clicked on, it ignited the natural gas.

The gas sent the hot-water heater rocketing through the roof. Mr. McKinney said he and the other adjuster found it about 100 yards away in a field.

Nearly the entire house needed to be replaced, he recalled. With the aid of a crane, he added, “I think the frame was actually saved because they were able to move it back onto the foundation.”

The claim was expensive, noted Mr. McKinney, but it was paid as there was no negligence on the part of the residents. “Occasionally, something goes wrong,” he noted. After all, that's why people purchase insurance.

POLE RISKS

When people hear the words “pole dancing,” they likely visualize exotic dancers at “gentleman's clubs.” They probably don't think “insurance claim,” but beyond potential workers' comp claims for the professionals involved in such activity on a regular basis, these next few stories demonstrate that the exposures, so to speak, can be more widespread.

Melanie Elias, director of claims for Burns & Wilcox and for third-party administrator Minute Man Adjusters–both H.W. Kaufman Financial Group companies–said one claim involved a standard dance club that had dancing poles installed on a platform that patrons would use for fun.

One young lady, who was perhaps a bit larger than the manufacturers of the dancing pole had intended, attempted to swing on the pole and it broke, sending the young lady to the ground, where she hit her head.

For this claim, Ms. Elias said liability issues centered around who had installed the pole. It turned out the insured installed it, but Ms. Elias said if a third party had done so, the insurer could have looked at the third party for liability.

Another claim involved a party at a dance club, noted Ms. Elias. The girl for whom the party was held had a few too many drinks and fell asleep at a table. One of her friends ran and grabbed a dancing pole, then fell onto the passed out party girl.

In this case, Ms. Elias said, it was alleged the club had failed to properly supervise the patrons.

Sometimes it is not just intoxicated amateurs who can cause damage on a dancing pole. Ms. Elias said she saw a claim where an exotic dancer was swinging around a pole at a gentleman's club and cut a man's head with her stiletto heels. The man required stitches, Ms. Elias said.

Cherie Tittel, who works in the insurance department at Cincinnati-based Mike Albert Leasing Inc., told a story that shows the outside of such a club is just as likely a place to encounter a claim as the inside.

In this case, though, the insured driver, who was driving a leased vehicle at the time, may not have been entirely truthful about the circumstances surrounding the claim, according to Ms. Tittel.

“I had a driver call to tell me that 'a friend' called him from a strip club late at night because the friend was too intoxicated to drive,” she recalled. The man parked the leased vehicle outside the club “and left the keys in it, car running, to 'just run in and get my buddy.' When he returned, two hours later, with his 'buddy,' his car had been stolen.”

To top off his tale, the driver pulled out what has essentially become a clich? among insurance professionals and asked, according to Ms. Tittel, “Do you think my insurance company will pop for the golf clubs that were in the trunk? I think they were worth about $5K.”

The car was found banged up in the police impound lot, Ms. Tittel said. Not surprisingly, no golf clubs were found in the trunk and the insurance company did not pay for them.

ANIMAL CRACKERS

A list of unique and unusual claims would not be complete without a few stories about the unpredictability of animals and the insured damage they can inadvertently cause.

Chuck Keller, agency manager of McHenry Insurance in Towner, N.D., told National Underwriter about a claim involving a hungry insured and his hungrier dogs.

The insured pulled away from a drive-thru at a local McDonalds with his food in his lap. His dogs decided to start the meal early and lunged for the food, causing the insured to reflexively press down on the gas pedal. The car struck another vehicle in the parking lot. Mr. Keller said the claim was inexpensive–at around $1,000.

Not all animal-related claims are so “routine,” however.

Anthropomorphism is the act of assigning human characteristics and qualities to animals (in addition to inanimate objects and natural phenomena). Aesop used this device when writing his fables, creating timeless tales with important moral lessons.

But when the police use anthropomorphism while writing up their reports, the results are a bit sillier and not quite as timeless–particularly for an insurance adjuster settling a claim.

Ms. Elias said a claim she saw involved a deer breaking through a storefront window and running through a video store before settling down in the store's ladies restroom.

The deer refused to leave even after the police arrived and attempted to lure it out. Eventually, the deer ran out of the bathroom, then out of the store, and finally down the street.

When she saw the police report, Ms. Elias said it contained language such as, “Suspect broke through front window,” and police “used best negotiation tactics to coax the suspect out.” It concluded that the deer “escaped and ran” and was “last seen heading east down Main Street.”

PICK A CARD

Another claim Ms. Elias recounted raises some interesting questions about determining who is at fault when both parties accuse each other of wrongdoing in an online item exchange.

She said her insured purchased sets of trading cards over eBay for $10,000. When the cards arrived, the insured said they were not what he ordered and he returned them. The seller countered that the insured returned fake cards.

The legal battle has turned into a “he-said, she-said,” Ms. Elias noted, adding that she wondered how one would even manage to fake a “Star Wars” card, for example.

Ms. Elias said the case is still ongoing.

DEATH RAY CLAIM

We'll close this account by harkening back to the ancient world, when Archimedes–a Greek mathematician and inventor–was said to have used a host of ingenious, unique inventions to defend the island of Syracuse from attack.

One of Archimedes' rumored inventions was the “death ray,” which supposedly used a series of mirrors to focus sunlight on one point, causing invading Roman ships to burst into flames.

Some scholars today have questioned whether Archimedes' death ray was really no more than a myth. But perhaps the great inventor would have silenced modern-day critics had he used a garage window rather than mirrors.

David Hollmann, owner of the Sparta, Wis.-based Hollmann Agency, said the house across from his insured had a concave window on the garage, and it was left open at just the right angle one day. “The sun hit the window, causing a beam to shoot across to my insured's home, melting the siding,” he recalled.

He said Fire Insurance Exchange, part of Farmers Group of companies, paid $481.18–which represented the total value of the claim, less the deductible.

Archimedes truly would be proud.