Slithery Snakes, Gravesites and Other Spooky Claims Tales

A slip and fall into an open grave, melted Lamborghinis, imploding wine vats, snakes on an ambulance—a claims department can be a scary place to be sometimes.

With a tip of the hat to Farmers’ Hall of Claims, Claims Journal went in search of the scariest or weirdest claims tales to celebrate Halloween. So, we asked our readers and social media followers to send us some of the most frightening or outlandish claims they’ve come across.

Our apologies for any hairs inadvertently raised, but they did not disappoint.

We aren’t giving out awards for the most ghoulish claims stories, but if we were, the winner might be Rich Randazzo with the Brownyard Group, a program administrator for agents and brokers serving the security, pest control, investigative, alarm services, salon and spa, cosmetics, landscaping services, cemetery and library industries.

“An insured submitted a notice of claim where the claimant was visiting their cemetery and slipped on a rock,” Randazzo said. “The individual fell down a hill and into an open gravesite, which was awaiting an imminent burial. The claimant was briefly trapped in the open gravesite and had to be helped out by nearby cemetery workers who were preparing the gravesite for a burial.”

Spooked

Scared and claims are not uncommon companions around this time of year. The Halloween season apparently amplifies homeowner concerns, according to a survey from Hippo.

The survey shows the fear of home damage intensifies around Halloween, with 36% of homeowners saying they are worried about liability from accidents and 22% saying they are more concerned about property damage like vandalism during this time of year.

The Hippo survey also showed that many homeowners have heightened property damage concerns during the Halloween season: 40% of homeowners reported they are more worried about theft, and 37% were concerned over potential home break-ins.

Randazzo has been in the claims field across five decades, so he has a lot of skeletons to air out. But first let’s get to some claims stories from other readers and followers. We offered anonymity, which Randazzo didn’t require, so the rest of our stories come from claims professionals with only first names attached to their tales.

Wine-o-ween

Larry, who specializes in wineries, recalled a claim in which a winery employee driving a forklift clipped the side of fermentation tank hatch, which opened up and began to leak wine.

“The employee, thinking quickly, jumped down, and through superhuman strength closed the door as the wine was still pouring out,” Larry said. “This had the adverse reaction where once the door closed, the sudden change in pressure caused the tank to implode downwards crushing it like a can. This was caught on camera.”

Larry also recalled an incident during the fires in California’s wine country in 2017.

“I visited a mountaintop dwelling outside of Napa,” Larry said. “Our claims team had to navigate a bridge across a creek that had burned out to access the property. The mansion on top of the mountain was a total loss. Looking through the debris of the insured’s garage, we found two brightly colored metal puddles. These were both melted Lamborghinis.”

Lisa, a claims adjuster, also had a story about seeing something frightening at the site of a potential claim.

“Walking into a policyholder’s house to inspect his property claim and there sits a Glock on the foyer table as soon as I walk in the house,” she said. “It was creepy!”

Snakes

Richard is a claims professional who has been in the field across several decades. He recalled a community ambulance service policyholder, which responded to a call from a wife saying her husband was in the living room passed out, but she didn’t know what happened.

Earlier in the day, the woman purchased a Christmas tree for the holidays and had it delivered to the residence and placed in the living room still strapped up. When the husband came home from work, he unstrapped the tree and a 2-foot snake slithered out and crawled under the couch.

Without telling his wife to save her from a fright, the man got a broom and bent over to corral the slithery guest. As he bent over, the family cat rubbed up against his legs.

“The man, thinking it’s the snake being aggressive, faints,” Richard said

The ambulance service arrived and the found the man to be fine, other than he was “out.” As a precaution, they decided to take him to the hospital for further examination.

“As they place the man onto the stretcher, the snake decides to make an appearance and the ambulance EMTs, seeing the snake, drop the stretcher with the man on it, breaking one of his shoulders,” Richard said.

Slippery Tales

Randazzo with Brownyard offered several other claims tales worth retelling, which included a claimant shot by a Nerf gun at a trash dumpster in a gated community who alleged the security company failed to provide adequate security, and a nurse blaming security for a slip and fall into wet cement.

Slips and falls are a common fear shared by small businesses. A recent survey from Pie Insurance conducted with more than 1,000 small businesses identified a nightmare list that might make business owners lose sleep at night, with the biggest fears being: slips and falls, death, fire, a dangerous person and auto accidents.

Randazzo’s most Halloween-ish claims story involved another cemetery.

“We received a claim where the claimant was visiting a gravesite in our insured’s cemetery, sitting on the grass,” Randazzo said. “Out of the thousands of headstones in the cemetery, the claimant alleges that suddenly and without warning, the headstone behind her (not the one she was visiting) fell over and struck her. The claimant states that she never touched the headstone and that it just fell.”