This Arizona teen had the hare-brained idea to solicit for a shady mechanic to commit insurance fraud for him on a public Facebook group, it backfires epically.
If there was a handbook for insurance fraud 101, rule number one would probably be not to solicit advice to commit said fraud publically over the internet. Arizona teen Brindin Hobart (if that’s even his real name) found that out the hard way when he asked advice on a potential mechanic who can falsify engine damage information for an insurance claim on the “Arizona Street Heat” Facebook group. Brindin’s only problem was that the company he was filing an insurance claim against had a rep who was a member of the group.
Check out the epic exchange that happened over the weekend below. Just in case the post below gets deleted, here’s a mirror.
Arizona Street Heat isn’t the largest car Facebook group for the Arizona area but, with close to 5,000 members, it’s large enough that popular posts have the potential to get around. In other words, the degrees of separation between a member in that group and a person handling Brindin’s insurance claim is statistically small.
Brindin did not think this one out.
According to Cody, the insurance rep, in response to a follow up to this epic exchange,
” I’ll know more Monday. I already uploaded screenshots into the claim… It’s like walking into a bar and talking to a random group of people at the bar that you don’t know. Then bragging about robbing a liquor store, while one of the people at the bar is an off duty cop. (in this case, detective who was working the bar robbery case)”
Apparently Brindin got so scared that he, “deleted his entire Facebook account, even.” Doesn’t sound like someone who made a simple mistake to me.
Insurance fraud is not something society takes lightly since ultimately everyone involved is affected thanks to increases in insurance rates, wasted time and energy etc. For those that get away with insurance fraud, they’re likely to commit bigger instances of fraud if the opportunity presents itself because they think it’s a victimless crime of sorts.
I’ll be keen to hear an update on the pickle Brindin’s got himself into and if criminal charges of any sort are levied out so expect an update if you bookmark this page and check back.
