WA Man Thought he Committed the “Purrfect” Crime

Warning: this article may be filled with clichés about cats.

Officials let the cat out of the bag recently when they announced the arrest of a Washington man who was charged with insurance fraud and attempted theft (not as a cat burglar). He apparently used photos that he found on the Internet to file a $20,000 insurance claim for a dead cat that he never owned.

According to the Claims Journal, Yevgeniy Samsonov, 29, was involved in a minor traffic accident back in 2009, and the other driver’s insurer paid out about $3,500 to cover chiropractic treatment. Then, over two years later, Samsonov claimed that his cat Tom had been killed in the accident and he was seeking $20,000 in compensation. At least it wasn’t curiosity that killed the cat.

Samsonov went so far as to submit photos of his cat, but an insurance representative found that the pictures came from the Internet. It was noted that one of the photos shows up in the top search results when you Google “white cat.” The image is also featured on the Wikipedia page dedicated to cats.

“We’ve handled some pretty unusual fraud cases, but this is one of the stranger ones,” said Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.

Court documents show that Samsonov has neither a listed phone number nor an attorney. I guess cats got his tongue now that he’s been found out.

The insurance company, PEMCO, had initially sent Samsonov a $50 check to compensate him for the cat, which he said cost him $1,000 and was like a son to him.

After finding the images online however, PEMCO canceled the $50 check and forwarded the case to investigators.

The initial car accident was described by officials as minor, stating that Samsonov and the pother driver were stopped at a traffic light, when the foot of the driver behind him slipped off the brake. The insurance commissioner’s office said damage to both vehicles was “very minor.”

I’m guessing he’ll probably be more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs if he gets arrested. For now he’s still assumed innocent until proven guilty.