Criminal Justice
Mortgage Meltdown Issue: Arson
Posted Apr 21, 2008, 04:20 pm CST
By Martha Neil
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."
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