What is making the upward trend of insurance claims? Do you think it is accident or is it auto theft? Auto theft is the answer. According to NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau) as of writing time, it has been out that in 2008, owner give-ups skyrocketed in five major cities: Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and the number is still increasing. What is an auto give-ups situation? This may surprise you when it says that the owner himself is the one who makes the situation seem to have been done by a theft. The truth of the matter is, the owner himself is the one that makes the theft appear real.
How does this happen? The owner would either submerge the car on a shallow river by appearing that the car skidded off the road on a certain time. Then there is another method that others might have thought of which is, abandoning the car somewhere that the owner might be able to see it with effort. Another technique is having the windows smashed by a baseball bat or perhaps a car was thrown at the window or the hood.
Imagine how this owner theft gets money from their auto insurance. Perhaps these people are somehow desperate when it comes to having money the fast and easy way.
According to NICB there are different terms how owners make the crime appear so real.
There is what they call a 30-Day Specials. This is when the car owner hides the vehicles for a good 30 days which will make claiming easy. After the claim has been approved and claimed the car may be found abandoned somewhere.
Another auto theft technique that seems to be real is panic stop. This technique is when the car owner will have an accomplice. The car owner will be looking at the mirror and will be swerving a little bit good enough to be inconsistent with the speed. During this time, the owner will slam on his brakes after signaling at the other person to crash their car on theirs.
Then, there is also what is termed as Intentional brake-slam. This is almost the same with Panic stop, the difference is, the car owner will suddenly just suddenly slams on his brakes causing the car behind him crash on his car. In this situation, the driver behind the crashed car is the one at fault. The victimized driver will have to pay the owner-theft who in reality was the one who caused the accident.
So, with all these new techniques of owner–auto thieves we just really have to be vigilant with the people we are with on the road.
