The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-14
THE INSURANCE ADJUSTER.
How Fire Insurance Companies Are I'm
posed Upon with Fraudulent Claims.
Professional Scamps Who Make Their Living
Out of the Companies-Sa Sample Cases
from an Adjuster's Notebook.
1ritten for the indianapolis Journal.

Written for the Indianapolis Journal
Very few people know that there is a class of
men in every large city of the United States
who attempt to live by cheating fire insurance
companies, yet, if the insurance adjusters are to
be believed, this is the case VIM. r. Pitcher,
of the Royal, is one of the best known and most
successful of them all, and he can relate from his
own experience, tales OF criminal cleverness
which would make old detectives green with
envy.
People talk he said the other day, "of an
adjustment being case of diamond cut diamond,
but they are wrong. Most frequently the dia-
mond cuts us. / think, as a rule, the insurance
company gets sailed seven times out of ten by the
insured. These papers before me now on this
desk contain case in point. They relate to Il.
Brindza, who lately lived in Wyckoff street,
Brooklyn, but who has fed to some other city
Boston, belieye-to play there the game he so
successfully played on the New York companies.
Brindza was slim, tawny Hebrew, aged about
twentys seven, and considerable of a smiler-one
who tried hard to impress upon you that he was
gushingly innocent of the worlds sinful ways.
There's warrant -out for him now, and
we mourn his loss. He notified US that he
had had loss on clothing insured in our COM
pany. An adjuster went to see mis- premises two
days later, and found him living on the first
floor Of q house in Wyckof street. He showed
the adiuster into his sleeping-room. A portable
closet, slightly charred on The inside, stood in
the middle of the floor, while scattered around
on chairs and the sofa were articles of clothing,
all more or less wet, and some of them burned
He said that on the night of the FIRE his wife
went to the closet to get something for the baby
She had carried the lamp with her, and when
she returned to bed she smelled smoke She
woke him, and he discovered fire in the closet
which was only put out by strenuous exertion
He claimed $500, and we settled for $780, He
had sworn that there was no other Insurance.
yet three days after that settlement he made
claim on another company. By lucky accident
the regular adjuster of this last company was
sick, and they employed another. When he saw
the name and schedule he said: Why settled
on these very articles for this same man month
ago. He was then living on Gates avenue. He
was insured in the Star Company them When
BrindZe heard that he was discovered, he
skipped to another city. We afterwards found
that these same articles Of his had been paid for
knew how to place his insurance through his
father-in-law, who is an insurance broker in this
city
'Brindza was professional, you see He
was making his living out of those burned
clothes and that charred closet which he carried
about from place to place Some of the anna
tours are daisies, though, and bother much
AS the professionals. Here. for instance, is the
case of prominent brewer in Brooklyn, who
made claim for Sc 900 for beer which he said
WAC nv fra I nnufvn od hot
there was something wrong, and commenced an
investigation. The brewery where the fire oc-
Cured had sub-cellar and an upper cellar
The allegation was that in attempting to put out
the fire the firemen had put water in the beer
tanks and soured the beer. An examination
showed only one hole in the wall, and this was
small and of such a height that a stream of
water sent through it could only have struck the
sides of the tanks. The allegation further was
that while the fire was in progress the beer from
the tanks ia the upper cellar had been run into
the empty tanks in the lower cellars
took gaugers and an analytical chem
ist along, and went into the thing
thoroughly. The gaugers found that there were
1000 more gallons of beer in the tanks of
the lower cellar than the tanks above, from
which the beer was said to have run, would
hold. These tanks, also, which were said to
have contained the beer at the time of the fire.
had cobwebs and bugs in them, and the chemist,
by scraping off some of the mold and Analysing
it, was prepared to testify that the tanks had
been empty a long time Then we went into the
lower cellar. and boring holes in the bottom of
the tanks there, drew off the yeast, proving con-
clusively that the beer must have been resting
there for year previous to the fire. The
brewer wanted to compromise for So, 900 then,
but we wouldn't. He came down to 81 900, and
then we told him that thera might be a prosecu-
ton on our part if he didn't drop his claim He
dropped. The case was not singular at all. We
have many like it. The only astounding circum-
stance was our upsetting the claim
Here is the most daring and clever attemptat
defrauding company that ever met with The
mans name was Stadler. He was tall, fine
looking fellow, with full beard which he lost
when had him sent to the pententiary for five
years. He put in claim for 900 for essen
tial oils destroyed by fire. spent seven months
in uncovering his tracks, out finally brought the
whole plot to light. He had rented a basement
room nine by fifteen feet in Beekman street
about two months before the fire broke out
Then he had bought two barrels of broken glass,
claiming that he wanted to experiment with it.
After sending the glass to two places first, so as
to puzzle Investigators he landed it at his room
Then he bought two boxes of excelsior shavings
you know, as fine as hair, and after sending these
to two places first, landed them also at his room
He then secured some man to represent seller
of essential oils. and mad legal bill of sale ex-
ecuted before notary publ detailing $40, 900
worth. Then he brought two glass jars, one con-
tanning twelve and the other eleven gallons of
concentrated sulphuric ether. tied the doors of
his place with a rope, and placed lighted candle
in such position that it would burn the rope
through. Then he got out of window and
closed the window down and left the city. He be-
leved that the flame of the candle would burn
the rope and set fire to the excelsior which was
scattered about at the same time. By the time
the rope was burned through there would be
heat enough to blow the doors open; that would
let in oxygen enough to make the excelsior burn
fercely, and the flame would then crack the bot
ties of concentrated sulphuric ether, which would
produce fearful confagration, quite sufficient
to fuse all the glass. which was strewn around
and give the place the appearance of having been
subjected to a big oil fire. All would have gone
well with the scheme had it not been that the
fire department was altogether too quick. and
stopped the flames in time to have evidence
pened in August, 1884, and it was last spring,
therefore, that the man was sent up for five
years under the new code for making fraudu-
olo ix,d<x