In November 2023, a 60-year-old man from the US reportedly attempted insurance fraud by allegedly paying someone to cut off both of his legs and blame it on a tractor accident.
The Howell County Sheriff’s Office stated that the man claimed the accident resulted in the loss of both his legs, but inconsistencies arose in his account.
Firstly, his legs were missing and couldn’t be located, which was deemed highly unusual given the circumstances.
Additionally, the wounds appeared too clean to have been caused by a tractor, raising doubts about the authenticity of his story.
Moreover, concerns were raised about how a recognized paraplegic could have placed himself in the path of a tractor, known as a brush hog.
Torey Thompson, a lieutenant with the Howell County Sheriff’s Office, stated to the Springfield News Reader, “If it was done by a brush hog, it would have been a bloody, gory mess. I have seen those types of accidents before. This was not like that.”
Authorities dispatched to the scene of the accident were intrigued by the bandages on the man’s leg stumps and who had applied them shortly after the incident.
As the investigation progressed and inconsistencies arose in the injured man’s story, it was reportedly discovered that an individual from Florida had come to the man with an axe and allegedly hacked off his legs for a price.
Thompson remarked, “It was a poorly executed plan. I have not seen anything quite like it.”
Despite the attempt at insurance fraud, the alleged scammer could not be technically prosecuted.
However, the sheriff’s office, frustrated with the waste of time and resources, considered bringing charges for making a fraudulent police report.
Despite the inability to formally charge the paraplegic man with insurance fraud, the sheriff’s office considered pressing charges for filing a false police/EMS report, given the waste of time and resources involved.
However, due to the severity of the man’s injuries, incarceration was deemed impractical. Therefore, the decision was made to allow him to recover in a hospital.