A Washington man has been charged with fraud and attempted theft after allegedly filing an insurance
claim for his dead pet cat, which never actually existed.
Yevgeniy Samsonov was involved in a minor traffic accident back in March 2009 in the Washington state city of Tacoma, the Seattle Times reports.
Samsonov filed an insurance claim for chiropractic treatment, and the other driver's insurer, PEMCO, paid him US$3452 (A$3363).
But more than two years later, he filed another insurance claim for the death of his cat, Tom, who was allegedly killed in the same accident.
The insurance company issued him with a US$50 (A$48) cheque, but Samsonov told PEMCO he wanted US$20,000 (A$19,489).
He sent two photos of his cat to the insurance company, but after a quick Google search, it was determined that Samsonov had taken the photos of different blogs and Facebook.
When an insurance representative Googled "white cat", the images were among the first ones to appear.
PEMCO forward the case to the insurance commissioner's anti-fraud unit.
“We’ve handled some pretty unusual fraud cases, but this is one of the stranger ones,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said.
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