From four-legged vandals escaping police custody to a modern-day twist on Archimedes' ancient death ray, most insurance professionals have a war story or two about weird and unusual claims they've seen over the years. This time around, National Underwriter readers shared humorous tales, accounts that raise interesting questions about who is responsible for a loss, and even one story that comes straight from a major motion picture.
In the 1999 movie “Fight Club,” Edward Norton's character narrates how his 15th floor condo was completely destroyed by an explosion. He said the stove's pilot light went out, and the condo became filled with gas. Then the refrigerator's compressor clicked on, causing a spark that ignited the gas, destroying the entire condo (yet remarkably sparing all of his neighbors' dwellings because of the condo's concrete walls).
Some may come away from the narrative wondering if something like that could ever happen in real life–and if so, what the end result would look like. For Doug McKinney, agency principal and president of McKinney Insurance in Asheville, N.C., this question was more than academic, thanks to a claim he worked on in the mid-1970s.
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