Today's (True Story?) Funny

[A. R. M.]

Only in the States ...

A North Carolina man recently bought a box (25 stogies) of rare cigars,
and as is standard practice for cigar afficionados, insured them under
his house insurance for the usual losses... including fire.

He smoked all the cigars over the course of the month, and then submitted
a claim to his insurance company for $2,500 US for the loss, citing that
they had been lost over the course of a month in 25 separate fires.  When
the insurance company balked at the claim, he sued.

Believe it or not, this actually went to court.  The judge noted that it
seemed a frivilous case, but awarded the claim anyway, based on the fact
that the wording in the policy of what constitutes "fire" was unclear.

The insurance company got the last laugh.  They went to the police,
presented the facts of the case, and based on their statement, the police
arrested the man.  The accused was charged with 25 counts of arson, based
on the fact that the accused had on 25 separate occasions, put a match to
each cigar with intent to wilfully destroy property in an attempt to
commit insurance fraud.

The man who thought he was pulling a fast one on his insurance company is
currently serving an eighteen-month stretch and was fined $25,000 US.