The Crime Prevention Website

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   Celebrating our Second Birthday!

Monday 16th June 2014

Dear Friend in Crime Prevention

Thank you for taking Newsletter Number 11 from the The Crime Prevention Website

April 7th this year was the website’s second anniversary. Thank you for the good wishes that some of you sent to us and for your continued support. 

This issue brings news about four more companies to join our Directory, new advice pages in our brand new tab, ‘Non Domestic Buildings’, and includes a little look at what we’re doing to protect our gardens using the data derived from the Home Security Survey.


   The Crime Prevention Website – how are we doing?

Visitor numbers

As of 3rd June 2014 we’d received 429,916 visitors since launch (96,527 more since Newsletter Number 10) who have between them viewed 785,791 pages.  April this year saw the biggest visitor numbers for a single month since the website was launched.  There were 34,244 visits and 55,137 page views giving us an annual visitor rate of 411K and 662K page views. Hitting a total of 1 million page views during October this year still seems to be possible.

Although these figures are pretty good we still need your help, so please forgive us for repeating the usual requests:   

  • If you work for a police force or other organisation that is not linking to The Crime Prevention Website please could you approach the boss and/or the people in charge of your media and see if you can make this happen. We would obviously reciprocate and link back and we would be happy to publicise any crime prevention campaigns they might be running.
  • Follow us on Twitter and re-tweet our tweets
  • Like our Facebook page and please share some of our stories, which takes just a couple of clicks
  • Encourage people to take our free and confidential Home Security Survey
  • Send us some words of encouragement, which we can post up on our testimonials page
  • Have a go at contributing to the advice content on the website by using the 'Feedback on this page' in the top-left of every page
  • Include a link to The Crime Prevention Website on your emails and newsletters

And there’s more.....

  • When crime prevention comes up during a conversation at a barbecue party this summer (as it often does :-)) please drop in the words "of course, the best site for crime prevention advice is the Crime Prevention Website dot com."  Watch how the assembled crowd all rush for their smartphones to check it out!
  • Mention the site to the ‘man on the street’, because if the man on the street knows about the website then everyone will know about it.
  • And while on the subject of ‘the man on the street’ please tell every Tom, Dick and Harry
  • If cleaning out the gutters this summer please shout down from the top of the ladder to the man on the street that after you’ve finished this job you’ll be checking out The Crime Prevention Website
  • If the man on the street is not there please tell the woman on the street

Thank you very much! 

Page ranking

We’ve maintained our No.1 position on Google for the terms 'crime prevention' and 'crime prevention news' and Google ranking has continued to improve for lots of other search terms that I keep my eye on.

Google ranking continues to be an important measure of success for us, because without good ranking we won’t get found amongst the hundreds of millions of sites. 

New Links to the Crime Prevention Website

I’ve not done any writing to prospective linking websites during the past few weeks due to other work I’ve been busy with, so it’s come as a nice surprise to be able to report that a further 15 new websites have been sending through referrals since our last newsletter, some of which are highlighted below.  We now have reciprocal links with a total of 177 sites that we know about and a further 1360+ sites that we don’t know about (this is the way with the internet).  I’d like to think we could hit 200 linkers by the end of this year.

Police Forces

No new links with police services this time and unfortunately, Avon and Somerset have recently launched a new website and none of their external links, including ours, is currently on the new site.  We’re in the process of writing to them to see if this can be fixed.  See also Letter to Chief Constables below.

Neighbourhood Watch and Community Sites

Just two new links this time, but important ones, which are the Isle of Wight Neighbourhood Watch Association who joined us in April and very kindly put the link to us on their home page and Waldringfield Community site in Suffolk where you’ll find us listed on their neighbourhood watch page. If you live in these places do please visit these sites and show them your support. Neighbourhood Watch and Community website links are very important to us, because we get lots of visitors from them.  However, after two years’ association with these types of sites it’s interesting to note that they tend to be either full on and very active or very inactive.  Inactivity does not mean bad though and is more to do with the fact that the watches are very small and so only recieve a handful of visitors each week - they're just as important to us as the busy ones.

Companies

We have a link in place to Brainy Bike Lights, which as the name suggest is a company that makes alternative, rather clever bike lights, which actually get seen by motorists.  We’re waiting for the link back to us.

Forums and News mentions

Amongst these new links are: Wansteadium, a community site for all things going on in Wanstead E11; Landscape Juice Network, a website for landscape gardeners who've been visiting my list of defensive plants and Babycentre, a forum aimed at Mums. An Australian site for DIY, called Renovate, have delivered quite a few referrals and we’re particularly pleased to get our first link (that we know about) from a Wikipedia page on the subject of doors.

Associations and Institutes

Finally, we’ve a link with The National Community Safety Network, which is an organisation dedicated to supporting those involved in working for safer communities across the UK and throughout Europe.

Letter to Chief Constables

If there’s one thing that’s kept me going with this website it’s been the wonderful support I’ve received and continue to receive from my former crime prevention colleagues around the country, plus the fact that I get lots of referrals to the site from the eleven police forces that currently link to it.

For some strange reason I’ve never got around to writing a formal letter to the Chief Constables of the forces that don’t link, so I thought with two years operation under my belt now was as good time to do so.

I know lots of them won’t link up, because they have policies in place not to link to external sites, so I won’t be holding my breath.  But it’ll be interesting to see the feedback I get, which I’ll let you know about in the next newsletter - force by force!

In the meantime, if you’re in the police and involved in crime prevention, please help out if you can, our aim is and always will be to get free, expert quality advice to all members of the public.

Medals Awarded (new regular section)

Every couple of months I check to see how many referrals I’ve been getting from the websites that link to this website.  Awarding medals is our way of saying thank you very much to our Partners and recognising the fact that our mission to spread the crime prevention message is reaching those parts that other websites cannot reach!  Although the forums listed below are not strictly ‘Partners’ they nevertheless contribute to TCPW’s overall visitor numbers.

This month I’m pleased to announce the following awards to our Partners 

There are no STAR medals this month (these are very dificult to reach!)

GOLD

SILVER

BRONZE

If you get a moment do please pay these sites a visit


New Members of the Security Products and Services Directory

Four more companies have joined our Security Products and Services Directory and there are two more joining up very soon.

It’s great to have these companies on board, because their presence helps to fund the site, but importantly their experience has helped me fashion much better crime prevention advice. Not only that, but the products are excellent too!

It’s going to take time to hit the heady heights of perhaps 100 members, but as we’re going to be around for a long time to come we’re not in a rush and the best companies will be worth waiting for!

Hörmann (UK) Limited

Joined our Directory on 17 April in the ‘Garage Vehicle Doors’ and ‘Doors’ categories.

Hörmann was founded in 1935 and is the biggest manufacturer of garage and industrial doors in Europe and is the recognised leader in both the domestic garage door and the industrial door and loading technology markets.

Their range of garage doors have been successfully tested by TUV Nord against 'Break-in resistance guidelines for garage doors 11.2007’ and their range of ThermoPro Entrance Doors are certificated to Warrington Certification’s standard ‘STS201 - Enhanced security requirements for doorsets and door assemblies for dwellings to satisfy the requirements of PAS 23 and PAS 24’

Since the introduction of the “Berry” up-and-over garage door to Europe, the company has been at the forefront of technical developments. The sectional garage door was introduced in the 1960s and since then constant improvement and innovation has kept Hörmann moving forward.

SLS Midlands

SLS Midlands Limited of Walsall, is a member of both the UK Locksmiths Association and the police Secured by Design project.

Their joining is good news for us because they are the first company to appear in our Directory categories for Door locks... and Personal attack alarms.  Importantly, they supply the ABS Snap Secure Cylinder locks, which replace your existing standard euro-profile locks with no need for any modifications to your door or additional security handles. 

Using this type of cylinder, which is certificated to TS 007: Enhanced security performance requirements for replacement cylinder and/or associated security hardware, will prevent thieves ‘bumping’ your lock cylinder or snapping it and, importantly, the keys are registered so can’t be copied down at the heel bar. (See More things to improve door security). What’s more, if you live in West Midlands (subject to distance), they also offer a fitting service.

Interestingly, their ABS Snap Secure Cylinder has been fitted by them to the Brownhills Community Safety House used by the Crime Prevention Officers of West Midlands Police.

Their online shop also offers a range of other useful security products, including bike and handbag alarms, credit card and passport shields (to prevent illegal scanning and identity theft), handy deception safes and child safety window locks.

Commander Securities Ltd 

Commander Securities Ltd of Newtownards, Co. Down, Northern Ireland have joined our Directory with two excellent deterrents to prevent metal theft and fuel theft - ‘Roof Commander®’ and ‘Tank Commander®’, which carry police Secured by Design approval. You'll find them in Metal theft protection devices incorporating Roof security devices and Fuel theft detection devices 

Roof Commander® and Metal Theft

Metal theft crime accounts for 2% of all crime in the UK, but when considering thefts of lead and copper off roofs for example, this volume doesn’t account for additional costs of damage caused to the roof by rain or the damage caused to the contents of a building when the weather comes pouring in.  I know of one historical house near to me that has suffered no less than 7 lead thefts from the roof in the past 10 years! These have caused many thousands of pounds worth of damage to museum exhibits, including works of art.  

To prevent this type of crime Commander Securities Ltd has developed ‘Roof Commander®’, an intelligent pro-active roof alarm system.  The alarm includes a fire detection system and can send alarm signals to 10 mobile phone numbers or be linked to a compatible alarm system.  Signs, warning of the presence of Roof Commander®, are also placed on down pipes and at other locations around the building that might be climbed.  Importantly it’ll signal the presence of a trespasser on the roof before a crime is committed.

Roof Commander has been successfully installed on several church roofs in Northern Ireland and to date has had a 100% deterrent success rate. Before Roof Commander was installed, one Church had been targeted 9 times within a year, each time costing at least £3,000 to repair. The product has also been used to stop young people climbing onto a roof to practice parkour!

Tank Commander® and Fuel Theft

Fuel theft from both domestic and commercial fuel storage tanks has been a problem for a very long time.  It’s very much highlighted as a ‘Rural Crime’ and many farmers have fallen foul of the fuel thieves.

To counteract this problem Commander Securities Ltd developed the world’s first pro-active fuel tank alarm.  The alarm sits at the tank and sends instant SMS/text alert messages to you and informs the thief that they have been detected.  It has been independently assessed and approved by the police Secured by Design project, an approval that is not easy to achieve.

Their first commercial oil tank fitting for an 8,000 litre tank, directly helped the police catch several thieves on top of the tank at 3am one winter’s morning!

LifeLock Ltd

I wrote about the Lifelock extensively in my previous newsletter, because I know it's a great product and I'm delighted to say that they've gone on to join our Directory in Personal security products and services and Doors locks.....

I've got one of these beauties and I always take it with me when I'm staying in a hotel, because (between you and me and my research into hotel bedroom security in my days in crime prevention) most hotel bedroom doorsets leave a lot to be desired when it comes to security!

I know most hotels abroad and some of the better ones in the UK will have a room safe, which you should always use, but the doors will be no more than 30 or 60 minute fire doors with a single locking point and maybe a door bar or chain if you're lucky.  My concern has always been the possibililty of somebody with a pass key entering the room while I'm asleep and that's where the Lifelock comes in.  

It makes use of the exisiting catch plate in the door frame and you can pop it on in seconds. Once fitted you cannot take it off from the other side of the door and it will thwart any attempts to enter your room using a key or card.  Many professionals and government employees use a LifeLock when travelling abroad, which says a great deal about the quality of the device.

If you're a frequent traveller or simply take an annual holiday do think about purchasing a LifeLock to keep in your travel bag.  Students living in digs and halls of residence should think about getting one too. 

Current Directory list

The process of getting onto our Directory couldn’t be simpler as the whole thing is dealt with online. We're very aware that we have a responsibility to our users so we only accept ads and directory listings from reputable companies with products and services that meet relevant standards where these apply and that we approve of. Our most important aim is to make the directory useful to our visitors.

Because we’re still small we’ve kept the costs to a minimum, but just because we’re small doesn’t mean that we haven’t got a big punch!  Our click-through rate on banners is 8 times higher than the industry average, which is mainly because the people who visit our site are engaged people looking for solutions.

If you’re interested in advertising with us do please contact us at this link or if you know someone who might be interested please forward them this link and we'll get in touch


   Website Updates

Amendments and additions to the website’s advice pages continue as normal and I’ve added several more links to documents and useful websites in the Library

The following new pages have been added to the website.

Designing out Crime Association (DOCA)

I have been involved with DOCA since its inception and decided the best way I could promote the organisation was to give it its own page.  I’ll be adding their logo to my home page very soon too.

DOCA provides a forum to discuss issues around design and its implications for less crime and safer, healthier communities and is open to anyone who would like to contribute to the debate - from architects to designers to local authorities, police, the general public and community interest groups.

DOCA was formed back in 1999 and focused on promoting safer communities and reducing anti-social behaviour by improving the quality of life through the concept, application and practice of designing out crime and its principles; particularly Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED).  They are now seeking to take this further, utilising a multidisciplinary approach to make safer, healthier communities. 

Non Domestic Buildings

At the top of the website pages you’ll now find a new tab entitled 'Non Domestic Buildings'.  This is the beginning of a huge new advice chapter on the site that will include information on everything not connected with home security.

To start things off I've added these two new pages ('pages' is an operative word since some of them are very long indeed!)

Metal Theft

This new page brings together everything I could find about the problem and what can be done to prevent it.  Metal theft can also be a problem for domestic buildings too, so I’ve added references in the home security section to bring people to this new page.

CCTV for Home and Business

The second new page in this section is one of my 7,000 word epics (I said they could be long!). 

With the cost of CCTV systems reducing quite dramatically over the past decade, a camera system for the home and small business has now become a viable security add-on for the majority of people.  Current estimates suggest that as many as 5% of households now employ some form of CCTV, be it a simple single camera that views callers at the entrance door or a full-blown system which can monitor and record anything that takes place within the curtilage of the dwelling. Business ownership of CCTV is, of course, considerably higher.

Systems are available from specialist installers and alarm companies (look for accreditation by the SSAIB and NSI) or you can install your own system using the vast range of cameras, cable and recording equipment available both on-line and from high street electronics retailers.

The Crime Prevention Website gratefully acknowledges the assistance given and contributions made to this new guidance by Stephen Wills of Bradling Security Limited, a member of our Directory and Securicorp Components Limited

Please get in touch with me using ‘Feedback on this page’ at the top of these new pages to inform us of any errors that you might spot or to provide additional content.


   The Home Security Survey – the results

At the time of writing 2,810 surveys had been completed, but since I wrote about them in Newsletter 10 the numbers completed each day have fallen again slightly to 3.57 per day.  This means that I should be hitting the 3K sometime late July.  Before I can start drilling down to the detail about different types of dwellings (there are 8 different types) I really need to be hitting 5,000 plus for statistical significance.  So I need your help!

This is what you can do

  • Embed a link to it somewhere prominent on your website
  • Publish a short news item on your website (http://www.bingham-watch.com/ are doing this for me shortly)
  • Tell people about it on Facebook and Twitter
  • Make reference to it in your next Newsletter

You can use all or some of the words on the Home Security Survey page to create the news story and please let everyone know that the survey is anonymous and that they WILL NOT receive any further communication from my website except for the email with their survey results should they chose to save them. We NEVER give visitor details to third parties unless we have their express permission

The Top 10 Counties in the UK for taking the survey this period are:

Buckinghamshire (1st), Berkshire, London, Cumbria, Surrey, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire and West Midlands (Hampshire is the new county to enter the top ten and Sussex drops out into eleventh place)

The Top 10 States in the US for taking the survey this period are:

Ohio (1st), California, Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, New York 

Gardens and Sheds

This month I thought I’d take a look at our gardens and sheds, to see if we’re transgressing the tidy garden policy, so to deny the thief property to steal or tools with which to break into the dwelling or shed (when the thief would become a burglar).

There’s some good news and there’s some not so good news and to make this easy to follow I’ve broken down the results into sections

Things in the garden that could be used by the thief to commit crime

Tools

A few of us (6.4%) admit to having things in the front garden, which could be used to force open a door or window.  Now this isn’t too bad really compared to the 22% of us that have tools lying around the rear garden or left in insecure sheds and greenhouses.  A good quality steel spade, especially one that has a steel shaft, can exert enormous forces on a door or window and bear in mind that even enhanced security doors and windows are not tested with a tool of such length and so will be vulnerable.

If I was still in the police I would definitely be putting this out as a warning.  A spade can do more than break up the soil, it can break open your doors and windows too – that sort of thing!

Keys

Three percent of us hide a key to the entrance door in the front garden!  In my street of 300 houses and maisonettes that would represent 9 properties at risk, not just from burglary, but from no or a reduced insurance payout if the burglar uses those keys to enter the property. 

I know why you do it, but please don’t make a regular habit of it.  If you have to leave a key outside the front of your home please join the 5% of people who use a secure key box bolted to the wall or the 39% of survey respondents who leave the spare keys with a trusted neighbour, friend or relative. 

Interestingly the survey reveals that 8% of us keep the spare key on our persons and that 11% don’t even have a spare key.  Thirty-four percent of people keep the spare keys hidden somewhere in the house; hopefully not with the spare key to the car.

Ladders

Twelve percent of us admit to their being an insecure ladder in the garden or the neighbour’s garden. Whilst this is not good practice and it’s always sensible to keep these climbing aids locked away in an outbuilding or otherwise chained up securely, I would suggest that this advice is a lot more important for those of you who live in an isolated location or have a building elevation that is not overlooked by neighbours.  Asking a neighbour to lock up their ladder is not always that easy, but if you are that neighbour think how bad you would feel if your ladder was used to break in to the property next door.

Sheds

So what about that shed (or other outbuilding); where we might keep the spade.  How secure is that?  Now I’ve looked at sheds before, but thought it worth including in this segment, because if there’s one category of crime that’s not reducing by very much it’s shed burglary and theft from around the garden.

It seems that only 15% of us would describe our sheds as being 'very well secured'.  For people to give that answer I would expect the door to be secured with a high quality padbolt or hasp and staple (fitted the right way round!) together with a substantial padlock.  Alternatively, I would expect  a 40mm+ door to be fitted with a British Standard mortice lock and, for the record, I’ve got both types of locking on my shed’s double doors plus bolts on the inside and some additional reinforcement and a shed alarm!

Then we’ve got 47% of respondents stating that their shed is ‘quite well secured’, which means that you probably need to do a little bit more.  The worry for the police though is the 38% who reckon that their shed is ‘not that well secured’, which probably means ‘’not locked’ or 'locked with a padlock that dropped out of a Christmas cracker in 1979'.

Things of value in the garden that could be stolen

Three percent of us have valuable stuff in the front garden that could easily be stolen and 5% of us have stuff in the back garden that could be taken.  With these figures in mind someone driving down my street in a big van or pick-up in the early hours could collect quite a few valuable items for the Sunday car boot sale.  In fact, it would probably take no more than a couple of hours to completely fill the van!  I’m mainly thinking of hanging baskets, potted plants, pond equipment, garden furniture and tools left out.

Obviously we’ve got to take the odd risk if we’re into gardening and putting on a good display at the front of the property and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t continue to do so.  But you can reduce the risks by making sure you follow the guidance given in my website’s very big section on Garden security.  And while you’re in the Garden Security section check out the information about access and fencing at the same time.  It seems that 16% of people with a side access reckon it would be easy for a thief to get into the back garden, which is confounded by the finding that 52% of you tell me that any thief standing in the side access could not be seen from the road.

Climbing up to first floor windows

You’d be surprised how often trees, shrubs and building features are used to climb up to flat roofs and first floor windows, which is why I ask people the following question in the survey

Are there garden shrubs, trees, building features or other structures that can be used to climb up to front/side/rear windows?

Of the respondents who answered ‘yes’ to this question 10.3% had climbable plants and structures to the front, 10.1% to the side and 13.3% to the rear. - quite a lot more than I had anticipated. 

The problem with shrubs is that you can’t remove them like a ladder and who would want to chop down a wonderful Wisteria anyway?  The important thing for us to do is to make sure that any window that is accessible by climbing is locked as well as a ground floor window so you can continue to enjoy the climbing shrubs.

Two more things....

If you’re taking a holiday this year and leaving the dwelling unoccupied for a couple of weeks do please think about asking a neighbour to pop in and keep the garden looking tidy, by cutting the grass and pruning the odd shrub and watering the plants.  I know it’s a big ask, but you could return the favour when it’s their turn to go away.  I only say this because 63% of respondents to the survey (who live in houses and bungalows) don’t have an arrangement like this.  An unkempt garden is one big clue pointing to an unoccupied house.

Remember too how important it is for the police or other emergency services to be able to find your address should you need urgent assistance.  It seems that 14.3% of us are not displaying a house number or name sufficiently well enough to be easily spotted, which might cause some serious delay at a time when you least want this to happen.


 Crime in the news 

Here follows my most read news items during this period. Please feel free to copy and paste our news items into your newsletters as you see fit, but do show the origin of the story, which may be someone or something other than the Crime Prevention Website.

Most read news items this period (not in order)

Where do I get my news from?

You may have wondered how I source my news stories.  Well, it isn’t easy, because this website is about crime prevention and not all the other very important things that my former police colleagues do, such as looking for wanted and missing people, arresting villains, gathering evidence and keeping the peace.  They’ve all got their own websites for this and there are already others out there to help them, like Crimestoppers, Crimewatch, Ourwatch and so on.

I get my news stories from a variety of sources.  I’m signed up to receive press releases from a number of police services and there are particular websites that specialise in listing news stories under a variety of categories, including crime and crime prevention. 

I also pick up some interesting material from my Twitter followers and followings and get the odd story through my Facebook page and from the companies in my Directory.

Occasionally, one of my linking neighbourhood watch groups lets me know about something, such as Imaan Williams, 1st Watch Coordinator of Neighbourhood Watch Hide Tower Scheme, who regularly sends me interesting news items.

If you’re running a Neighbourhood Watch or are in the police or otherwise engaged in crime prevention do please let me know about what you’re up to, because I will gladly post up a story on the site and on my Facebook page and potentially 8,500 people a week will see it!

Website pages most viewed via Twitter (in order)

We share all our news stories on Twitter and Facebook.  If you’re into tweeting we would be very grateful for a few extra re-tweets – thanks very much!


    Crime prevention products

Security Skins

If you’re marking your property with UV pens, which you may have got from the police, there’s now a new product that will enable you to protect those marks from fading and from being easily removed.

They’re called ‘Security Skins’ and you can get them from Michael Keyte of Defend Detect Deter who you can find in our Directory here

The skin, which is placed over the mark, is made of a high polymer material, which is difficult to get off as it’s designed to break into tiny fragments when the thief tries to remove it.

The standard labels measure 60mm X 38mm and are available in quantities of 250+.  Other sizes are available upon request. This is something that a Neighbourhood Watch group might be able to purchase. 

Police routinely look for UV marks of all types, both on recovered property and on suspects’ clothes and it would be a shame if the UV mark you thought you’d put on the valuable item of property had faded or had been removed by the thief.

South Yorkshire Police used Security Skins to mark 50,000 boilers and Local Crime Prevention Officer, Dene Tinker, reported “Marking the boilers using Security Skins reduced boiler theft by 5% and assisted in the detection and arrest of offenders, handlers and also the recovery of boilers.”


And finally...

This newsletter currently goes to about 600 people.  About half of these are police officers and PCSOs or people who work for the police in crime prevention.  I just know that all of you have an amusing story to tell us all, to cheer up the day and to help make your newsletter just that little bit more interesting.  PLEASE be brave, put pen to paper and send your stories to me to be published here.  You can remain annonymous if you wish and you've got until the end of July to send me something. If you're worried about your grammar, don't worry, because I'm pretty rubbish at it too!

Send 'em to calvin@thecrimepreventionwebsite.com 

If you're not in the police and would like to contribute something that has some connection with crime, crime prevention or maybe neighbourhood watch please include yourself into this same request. I shall look forward to hearing from you as well! 


A defendant’s realisation     

The Judge turned to the defendant and asked “Now Mr Smith, do you understand that you have sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”

"I do." Replied the defendant

"So, having heard the very serious allegations made against you what do you have to say to defend yourself?"

"Under those limitations... nothing Your Honour"


Insurance claim goes up in smoke

I don’t know how true this story is, but as it was told to me by a former colleague who’s known to be a bit of a comedian I rather suspect it's been made up.

It goes like this...

Some wealthy bloke in the US buys a box of very expensive and rare cigars.  He insures them against theft and fire.  He then proceeds to smoke all of them and unbelievably puts a claim into the insurers stating that all the cigars were lost as a result of a long series of small fires. Quite as one would have expected the insurers refused to pay because he’d smoked the cigars.

The man then sued the insurers and won!  The judge ruled that the insurers had agreed to insure the cigars against fire without adequately defining what would have been an unacceptable fire and were therefore obliged to pay the claim.  To avoid the costs of a trial the insurers settled and paid the claimant $15.000

But the story doesn’t end there......

A few days later the man was arrested and charged with arson and later convicted of intentionally burning the insured property.  He was sentenced to two years and fined $25,000.

I think this falls into the category of believe it or not.

Keep 'em peeled!