My cigars are
on fire!
A man from Charlotte, North Carolina, buys a case of very expensive cigars. He then insures them against – fire! Over the next month he smokes all the cigars.
The man then makes a claims against the insurance company, ‘I have lost some very expensive cigars,’ he writes in his his claim, ‘in a series of small fires.'
In Court
The man takes the insurance
company to court. Amazingly he wins.
The judge says that the claim is
‘frivolous’ or silly. But there is a
problem for the insurance company. Nothing in the
insurance policy explains the exact meaning of the word
‘fire’. The man from Charlotte wins the
case.
The insurance company pays the man $15,000 for the
cigars lost 'in the fires’.
Arrest
The man goes to his bank to
cash the cheque. The police are waiting for him.
‘You’re under arrest,’ they tell him.
‘What for?’
’Arson and fraud,’ say the police.
‘We charge you with setting fire to 24 cigars.
Criminal
The man returns to court.
The evidence against him is his insurance claim and his
testimony from the previous case.
‘It’s a criminal offence to intentionally
destroy insured property,’ the judge informs the
man from Charlotte. He then sentences him one month in
prison for each cigar – 24 in total.
