Mortgage Meltdown Issue: Arson

Can't pay the mortgage? Or is your car or truck about to be repossessed? A small but growing number of financially stressed consumers has found an innovative, albeit criminal, solution to this problem: arson.

Apparently seeking to recoup at least some of their money via insurance fraud, cash-strapped consumers are torching their homes and vehicles, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"We've seen a dramatic increase in this kind of fraud," Dan Bales, the director of fraud investigations at Mercury Insurance, tells the newspaper. "People upside-down on their house with variable-interest-rate loans or upside-down on their cars are pretty quick to burn their property right now."