Nursery rhymes, though most commonly associated with playgrounds and sticky fingers, have made the leap over the schoolyard fence, and into a Virginia fraud investigation. While the most popular rhymes involve a girl and her sheep, or a certain very small spider, there was one that Gordon Scott Keso really should have recited to himself before submitting his claims.
On June 30, 2006, Keso submitted a claim to his State Farm insurance agency, stating that his truck had sustained damage after running over a large I-beam on an interstate in Caroline County, Virginia. Oddly, the police were never notified of this accident.
That wasn't the only odd thing about the case. Keso allegedly contacted State Farm concerning his claim, and was told to repair the truck and then submit the receipts. After the company received the repair receipts in 2007, an adjuster was dispatched to inspect the truck.
Not only did the truck have an additional 60,000 miles on it at this point, but the wheel fenders had also been replaced and painted. Even after inspection, the adjuster was unable to determine which, if any, of the accident-related repairs had been made.
Next to come into question were the receipts for repair work done on the truck. The Virginia State Police did a little detective work, determining only one of the five receipts, which totaled about $7,000, was legitimate. In fact, the items listed on the receipts didn't even fit the truck for which Keso had made the claim. They did, however, fit the larger truck he purchased on August 30, 2006.
One of the biggest tip-offs in the case was a receipt dated June 31, 2006. Even kids who can't tie their shoes yet can recite the familiar "Thirty days hath September..." rhyme. It's the "April, June, and November," part that Keso should have paid more attention to.
Seeing as the month of June only has 30 days, the receipt had obviously been tampered with, and the case unraveled from there. Keso now faces a jail sentence, a $2,500 fine, and a felony charge of attempting to obtain money by false pretense. Maybe he'll learn exactly how many days are in each month of his four-month prison sentence.
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