Our insured, a Regina elementary school teacher, returned from holidays to find that his residence had been broken into and personal property, including a large screen television, electronics, clothing, jewellery, vintage comic books and valuable antiques valued at approximately $25,000.00 were missing, despite the fact that there were no signs of forced entry.

Efforts by SIU to speak to our insured in order to further discuss his loss was without success, however, after talking with his father, it was learned that he had in fact vacated his residence just prior to his alleged loss and had a moving company transport his belongings, including a vintage comic book collection and a large screen television, to his newly acquired townhouse.

This loss became even more interesting when the Regina Leader Post newspaper ran an article describing a school teacher with the same name as our insured having been charged with “Possession of Cocaine for the Purpose of Trafficking” and “Possession of the Proceeds of Crime”.

Given this newfound information, SIU identified the moving company and learned that much of the property that our insured had reported stolen was actually transferred to his newly acquired townhouse. It was also interesting to learn that (4) metal trunks that were moved from our insured residence didn’t make it to our insured’s townhouse but instead, were secured in a storage facility near the Regina airport.

SIU interviewed the manager of our insured’s townhouse who recalled seeing various items of property including a large vintage comic book collection in our insured’s suite including the fact that he had additional property stored in a basement storage unit.

It was also interesting to learn that a person with the same name as our insured had just filed for Personal Bankruptcy.

SIU eventually spoke to our insured via long distance telephone and he volunteered that he was in an Ontario drug recovery home and wasn’t in a position to answer any questions relative to his loss and furthermore, he would not likely be returning to Regina.

In any event, our insured submitted a sworn Proof of Loss covering the alleged theft of his property, however, given the findings of the investigation, the proof was denied.

Unfortunately, our insured did not take the denial of his claim lightly and responded by saying that he was having his solicitor deal with the issue. However, a short while later, correspondence was received from his solicitor advising that his client has decided not to pursue legal action against Peace Hills Insurance as he does not have the financial ability to commence and sustain litigation.

Although our insured chose to abandon his claim, he will still be appearing in Regina Provincial Court in June 2007 to answer to his outstanding drug trafficking charges.

And now for some insurance humour!

A lawyer and an engineer were fishing in the Bahamas. The lawyer said, “I’m here because my house burned down, and everything I owned was destroyed by the fire. The insurance company paid for everything. “That’s quite a coincidence,” said the engineer. “I’m here because my house and all my belongings were destroyed by a flood, and my insurance company also paid for everything”. The puzzled lawyer asked, “How do you start a flood?”

Have a nice day....

Your SIU Team

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