Last year, Gerald Lamont Warren's mother reported her car stolen, filed a claim, and waited patiently for developments. Imagine her surprise upon later learning that her 1999 Honda Accord was not “stolen” at all, at least in the traditional sense, and that her own son had flipped the ride to make a quick buck.
Following the investigation by the North Carolina Department of Insurance, authorities arrested Gerald Lamont Warren, 31, charging him with one count of obtaining property by false pretense.
Unbeknownst to his mother, Warren had allegedly sold the Accord to a Greensboro car dealership in January 2010 to later report the vehicle as stolen in June that same year. After the presumable theft, Warren's mother had filed a claim with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company for which she received a check for $3,678.83.
The scheme began to unravel in May 2011, when an investigator with Nationwide Insurance contacted the Department of Insurance after an inspector from the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicle's Theft Bureau recovered the vehicle from the dealership. In an act of decency, Warren did choose to turn himself in at the Northampton County Sheriff's Department on Oct. 21. He was placed under a $2,500 secured bond.
See also: Fraud Just Keeps On Truckin'
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