Most of the time, insurance claims are run of the mill. Sometimes, claims fall on the wrong side of the law, like when a driver torches his own car. Occasionally, a claim that crosses an insurance adjuster's desk is downright bizarre. Here are a few favorites -- just don't try these at home.
Who let the dogs out?
That includes a dog that locked itself in a refrigerator during the holidays and ate the family's entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting to be found. The pooch suffered from a mild case of hypothermia but no serious injuries. VPI also paid the medical bill for a Boston terrier that had shut itself into a recliner.
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Um, it looked like food: Then there was the mixed breed that chased its own tail and caught it, coming close to chewing it off, a French bulldog that ingested more than 50 small candles and a Labrador retriever that ate a box of disposable razors. In each case, the owners made claims for medical treatment, and the insurance company paid.
Sharp smell: In another case, a Jack Russell terrier ate a wild turtle, and part of the shell got lodged in the canine's nasal cavity. The problem was undiscovered for weeks until the dog had to have surgery for respiratory problems. Pet insurance covered the medical bill.
Replacing the irreplaceable
"The homeowner had a party, and someone had too much to drink and broke the glass," Nickson says.
The ancient human mummies were left unscathed, but the broken glass scratched the wooden surface of their sarcophagi. Priceless artifacts, they could not be replaced, but State Farm paid to have them restored.
"Well, it was illegal for us to purchase a (human) brain," Nickson says. "So we were able to replace it with a plastic brain instead, and he was happy with it."
Not just a toilet seat: But what do you do when it's next to impossible to determine a claim's value? Nickson had one of those cases, too: a toilet seat that had been painted by artist Jackson Pollock.
"The policyholder was friends with Jackson," Nickson says. "One day, they had a party, and Jackson had too much to drink and locked himself in the bathroom and decided to paint on the toilet seat."
Decades after Pollock's death, the policyholder's home was greatly damaged in a fire -- including the toilet seat. When the claim was filed, insurance adjusters were scratching their heads when trying to figure out the toilet seat's value.
"His paintings were going for $1 million each," Nickson says. "So we had to come to some sort of average between a $1 million painting and a $20 toilet seat." The final decision: The man settled for $820 cash.
Touched by Elvis: As you might expect, people have a tendency to insure items once owned by celebrities. Nickson says State Farm insures a variety of memorabilia, especially items once owned by The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Whenever possible, Nickson's job is to replace the item.
For example, a lot of folks insure scarves once owned by Elvis (he was known to wipe his sweat on them). During his career with State Farm, Nickson has replaced two Elvis scarves, including one that was blown away by a tornado. The insurance company replaced both scarves with others that Elvis once owned.
"I have a relationship with people throughout the country, so that we can get our hands on these types of items," he says.
Demanding appropriate compensation
Then the man asked to be paid the "street value" of his drugs. His insurance company argued that since the stolen items were plants, it would pay no more than $500 per plant or a total sum of $1,000 -- the maximum coverage for damaged or stolen plants under his home insurance policy.
Road rage? Some folks go the extra mile to try to get a claim paid. Take the case of the man whose girlfriend wrecked his motorcycle. Worried the claim wouldn't be paid, he told his Progressive Insurance representative that he'd been driving the bike. In order to support his story, he tied himself to the back of a truck and asked a friend to drag him around "a little bit" to produce a road rash. He didn't know that his girlfriend already told investigators that she caused the accident.
Quick coverage: It's fairly common for uninsured drivers to attempt to buy insurance coverage after a vehicle has been damaged. It's much less common for a person to purchase insurance from the scene of an accident.
While lying on the side of the road with a ruptured spleen after he wiped out his motorcycle, a man called Progressive on his cell phone to buy coverage on the spot. Unfortunately for him, a witness heard him make the call and reported it to the insurance company.
"Some of those claims might sound outrageous, but insurance fraud isn't funny, and it isn't a victimless crime," says Jeff Moore, who works for Progressive's special investigations unit. "Fraudulent insurance claims cause costs to go up, and honest customers are the ones who pay the price."