The 21-year-old grandson of a former mayor is alleged to have covered up driving his pickup truck into a concrete power pole, which may have contributed to an electrical fire that caused $900,000 in damages to a neighboring used car dealership.
Ian Nunn, 21, is the grandson of the former mayor of Fort Pierce, Fla., Bill Dannahower. According to a seven-page arrest affidavit, and some surveillance footage, he is also in some serious trouble.
The footage of the accident taken from surveillance on November 10, 2010, reveals a “truck-like vehicle traveling north on U.S. 1 and coming to an abrupt stop. The vehicle then leaves the scene and moments later there is smoke emanating from Select Autos, followed by flames,” according to the police report. That “truck-like vehicle” was Nunn's, who after leaving the scene filed an insurance claim contending that the truck was damaged in an unreported accident that occurred in the Jacksonville area.
Meanwhile, fire officials concluded that the Select Autos car dealership fire was caused by an unspecified electrical failure inside the building. The initial cause of the fire has not been set in stone, but the state fire marshal did not rule out the possible link between the fire and the downed 40,000-volt concrete power pole that hit a light fixture in the dealership's lot after it was hit by the truck in surveillance videos.
“The amount of electricity that went into my building flowed in from the wrong direction – through ground wires which aren't designed to be conductors – and it blew up the building's electrical system,” said dealership owner John Dickens.
Initially, there was no further investigation into the crime because there were no suspects, but that changed in early December, when Dickens asked for an investigation after hearing rumors that Nunn was involved and had towed his truck to Jacksonville.
Nunn's insurance company tracked the truck to an export company in Jacksonville, where police compared the truck's damage with broken parts found at the scene of the accident, and found a perfect match. The truck remains in police custody as evidence.
Nunn was arrested on February 15, 2011 on charges of insurance fraud totaling $12,700, leaving the scene of an accident, and tampering with evidence. He is currently out of jail on a $15,000 bail, but it's unlikely that his ties to a former political figure will get him out of his charges.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
