The man who bought fire insurance for his expensive cigars-Fiction!

The Man Who Insured his Rare Cigars, Smoked Them All, Then Collected on the insurance-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor: A man bought a box of rare, expensive cigars, then took out fire insurances on them. When he had finished smoking them, he filed a claim against the insurance company. The company turned down his claim, but he filed a lawsuit and won, getting $15,000 from the insurance company.

The Truth: A little too slick to be true, and it isn't. No evidence of this case has ever been found and it has been around as an urban legend since at least 1968 when we first ran across it and researched it. updated 07/06/07

A real example of the story as it has been circulated:
Only in America... A Charlotte, NC man having purchased a box of very rare, very expensive cigars, insured them against fire among other things. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of cigars and without having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man stated the cigars were lost "in series of small fires". The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason; that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The man sued......and won! In delivering the ruling, the judge agreed that the claim was frivolous. He stated nevertheless that the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against fire, without defining what is considered to be, "unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid the man $15,000.00 for the rare cigars he had lost in the "fires". HERE COMES THE BEST PART!! After the man cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.