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Wow. Quite a story.

I did an 18 wheeler accident just last year where a guy was going up the twisty California coast (Big Sur) pulling a 60 foot trailer despite all the signs saying nothing longer than 45'. The people stuck behind him were so bored going slow, and watching his wheels almost go over the cliff on one side, and crossing the double yellows on the other, that they started taking pics with their cell phone cameras.

Along comes Mr. innocent in his Lincoln Town Car the opposite direction, around a hairpin 180 turn, and gets squashed against the side of the cliff like bug. The underside of the trailer was at the height of his windows, busting them out and folding the roof. The people inside lived, provided an interesting statement - including hearing a voice asking them if they could back their car up a bit so he could unstick the trailer from their Lincoln. So the guy unhooks from the Lincoln - and takes off another 25 miles down these twisty roads but at higher speed.

The witnesses keep following and taking pics - all of which become part of the police report when they finally pull him over going 95 mph on the straight sections.

I take this trucker's statement, and in his best convenience store accent (slurpeee or Marlboro?) he asserts the other guy ran into him and it wasn't his fault... with the Highway patrol photos showing him pining the other guy against the mountain and his wheels 4' across the double yellow line. Humans have a strong urge to make themselves right.

Windstorm Claim

1992 Hurricane, sliding glass door blows out and is gone.  Neighbors talking - someone had a sliding glass door appear against the side of their house that didn't belong to them.  Turns out the thing went down the block, turned left, went 1/2 a block, and was chattering against this guy's house during the storm.  The glass wasn't broken, and it went back into the opening and is still in use today.

Bob, in 12 years as a Farmers agent, I can count on one hand the people who came in and said "I hit them, its my fault, take care of them". There was always some reason why it was the other persons fault, no seat belt, they were going to fast. cracked tail light lense, and my favorite, no explanation, just "They ran into me, I don't know how, ask them!"

JWG

Wow - snake city. That's a wild one.

Yeah - the classic line is "they came out of no-where" (to an adjuster that means you weren't looking where you were going).  I am handling 2 pedestrian claims right now, where the driver makes it sound like the guy just jumped against his window for something to do. 

One of them has a police report with photo of the pedestrian tennis shoe heel pushed down in the back by the tire, confirming his story that he had made it almost all the way across the front of the vehicle when he was hit in the back pocket by the front left fender.  The other one has an eye witness.

After my first tornado when I saw the chicken feathers in the tree trunks. I was impressed with wind velocity and more so when I saw the old ridged asbestos shingles used as siding on the dwelling that was still intact (not shaddered) that were blown thru a 26 g corrigated garage door on a 2x4 frame at an odd angle and the 2 wounds appeared to be precisly cut with a metal shears. Both were on the floor of the garage, absent any marks.

Don't know if non auto or wind claims are allowed here, but I had a unique flood claim working the Peoria floods and hail storm in 1981. We got a late flood loss that came in about 3-4 weeks after the storm that was assigned to me. Property had probably 4' silt/water in it, took a week or so to recede, but the home was kept closed up until my inspection. Tenant had moved most of their stuff out shortly before the storm, with just a couple odds and ends left in the house that they never came back for. This was back in the days that there was still a lot of that thick shag carpeting around that this house had, coupled with a couple inches of silt on the floor. With the house all closed up during summer, the carpet and silt mix never dryed out completely before my inspection. There was plenty of light in the house from the windows, etc and the perfect environment for grow crops. Seems that the prior tenant wasn't much into running a vacumn, and it was also quite evident that they enjoyed smoking a bit of weed in the house. There were 2-3 rooms in the house that had probably a total of 200 pot plants about 6"-10" tall in growing out of this moist rich soil/carpet mix. The landlord was rather surprised at the discovery. I did my thing on the adjustment, took a couple extra photos of the crops, and submitted my report to the NFIP (direct to them back in those days). As all astute claim professionals should know, you should always address recovery potential on EVERY file, and this was no different. In the Salvage section I did address the potential salvage value of the carpeting/silt mix and the subsequent crops frowing in same. Never heard if they considered any salvage value or not on the final outcome. It is amazing some of the things you will run across while doing inspections of properties after an event, especially from a cause of loss that is so sudden that the property owners can't clean up or put stuff away in time before the inspection.

A small child in the front seat was able to push or pull the console shifter into reverse while his father was driving about 70. It was all covered by the comprehensive coverage as I recall many years ago.

In 2005 I worked for some of the London Underwriters( non admitted)who were still insuring some of the mobile homes under the auto form in Rita claims and it had an $250.00 limit on living expense with flood coverage for the building and its contacts with a stated amount for both. Some of you folks will be getting some of these this week it appears.

Never worked a auto striking a large pig, but the one who have always agree it caused the vehicle to over turn on its top and slide to a rest if the driver is lucky.

Worked an auto liability claim when the electrician did not secure the step ladder on the rack secure enough. It flew through the windsheild of the following auto driven by a last year female MD at the University of Texas and knocked her right eye out. Had low limits of liability coverage and in the days before under insured coverage. Has had a  life long impact on me and each time I see a ladder on the freeway I get angry again.

Your ladder brings to mind the rear semi trailer wheel/tire that came off on I-80 after dark.  It glided down the inside lane, then thru the median & came out of the darkness and into contact head-on with with another vehicle.  The driver of the car reported to me she vaguely recalled what she initially thought was a deer or cow coming into her path before the airbag blew up in her face.  Next thing she recalled was being upside down in her car hanging from the seatbelt.  Turns out she was in the opposite lanes of the interstate, and had also collided head-on (in the air) with another vehicle.  The driver of that vehicle was not so lucky.  We were never able to obtain a statement, as she was expected to remain in a vegetative state.  That was about 6 years ago.  The driver of the semi had no idea anything had happened except for another trucker who was behind him and saw the wheel come off.  That witness had no idea of what had happened as a consequence either, but for several miles was on his CB radio trying to get the attention of the driver who had lost his wheel.  After finally making contact, the trucker got pulled over into a rest stop and found out for himself that he had indeed lost the rear left duals.  With a partially empty/light load, he hadn't had a clue.  So , while he's on the phone to his company and arranging for maintenance, the State Patrol pulls up and informs him of the ensuiing accident that had occurred.

Must be a thing with me, and wild tires/wheels.  Had another similar to this, but with very limited damages occurring and no one hurt...plus I was following a semi once on the same stretch of I-80 and witnessed myself a rim/tire come off.  That baby travelled right down the adjacent lane side by side with the truck for maybe a quarter of a mile before it lost momentum, tumbled into the median and laid over before crossing into the oncoming lanes.  I'm pretty hesitant to stay along side any semi on the interstate since then, and my eyes are always on the medians when seeing oncoming trucks.  Also, back in my college days, I was on my way back to school after Xmas break behind a tire company pickup that was delivering 2 brand new rear tractor tires to a farmer.  The pickup hit a large pothole and both tires jumped out of the box into my path.  But my '66 Chevy pickum' up was tougher than they were.  All it did was knock a little rust off the front bumper and crack one headlight.  But the light still worked, and there never was a police report or a claim made.  But I think my back is starting to ache a little now.  Do you think it's too late?

Thanks for starting this thread, Ray.  It's almost like being around the campfire without smelling bad the next morning.

Had my very own axle problem a few years back (1978).  I was towing my pristine 1965 Oldsmobile Jestar One with the white leather seats behind the U-Haul truck as we were moving from Kentucky to New Jersey.  We were making real good time cruising down the interstate through Columbus Ohio listening to Radio Mystery Theater when suddenly I felt a rough tug on the back of the truck.  I looked in the right hand mirror and saw sparks flying.  I quickly pulled the truck over just in time to watch the car's rear wheel with axle attached roll it's erratic last 20 feet down the interstate and down over the bank.  The axle and wheel struck no other cars because the road was practically deserted (a situation never encountered in Columbus today).

I detached the car and drove the truck a couple of exits to the Howard Johnsons.  In 1978 in Columbus not every exit had open businesses late at night and some of the motels even closed after a certain hour.  I spent a few dimes on the pay phone and found an all night auto junk yard who pressed a new bearing on the axle and told me how to put it back on the car.  I was back on the road by mid day the next day. 

I know this is not a claim story at all, but since everybody was telling stories about errant wheels.........

Did U-Haul claims in the Houston Area years ago. Two females rented a large van and moved from Virginia to Texas. They just kinda took their time and the senic route and would camp out some nights in road side parks. The had a small hibachi and would do some meals. The hibachi was not completly out and set the load on fire. Seems like the cargo insurance was totaled out as I recall. I did not work the subrogation claim for U-haul and seems we did investigate under a ROR.  It also took some sorting to identify the first party, third parties and tort feasors.

This has nothing to do with wind or vehicles, it was just an oddball.  Homeowner reported possible hail damage to the roof although there hadn't been any hail in their area for several years.  So I went out expecting to find a beat up old roof.  Instead, it was a very nice home in the country with a large 2-story addition added that had a flat roof they had extended out about 25 ft to cover an open patio below.  This roof had been coated with a urethane foam system.  Mr insured informed me he had gone up to wash down the gutters and noticed the all those small holes in the foam.  It was a head scratcher because there wasn't a single sign of hail on the rest of the house.  First thought was that there had been air bubbles when it was applied, and they had burst leaving these holes.  We called the roofing company, and met again a few days later.  Just as we poked our heads up above the ladder to get on the roof, we spooked up a bevy of birds.  The roofer chuckled and said he needed to call his supplier, on a hunch about something that had happened to another dealer in a state nearby.  Turned out there had been some foam product contaminated with a grain additive or something of that nature, and birds found it to their liking.  The mfg company paid to give the roof a thin layover coating of unflavored foam.       

It was 1994 and I was doing branch assist in Atlanta when I saw my first Georgia Pacific, Cascade or some other mfg. hail damage that cause the nails to pop out of the siding and the sideing had a scab or something under the latex paint that I had never seen before.

The contractor accused me of being the dumest, hardheaded ole Texan he have ever encounted if I could not see what hail damage does to this type siding. Seems he was related to the insured who did not get into the fray. I could not swallow this line and told the parties I would report and get back. I really did not know what I was looking at, but I knew it was not a valid loss. Well it seems the carrier had just been informed THAT week about the glue and the possible recall of "masonite" siding. So all losses can not be "one shot" if you eye balls and brain can not agree.

Ahh Atlanta...seems this is also the place the thunder clap caused the double pane windows to fog up; however the pea size hail beating against the window could also cause the windows to fog or to have tiny black spec,s on the inside of the glass. Thats the kind of losses the old storm troopers get on stay behind branch assist claims.

OOps almost forgot. V & MM loss. A house on a large lot with a 5 acres pond behind the house filled with red muddy water. This insured planted some 20 gal. fruit trees down near the bank and during the night some no good so and so came along and cut three of the trees down and the insured wanted the limit on each tree. When I inspected I thought it was odd that some other trees had a section of 4 foot , 5 inch , metal AC duct snapped around them were still standing. When I looked at the part of the planted tree in the ground remaining I saw the culprit had used a sharp knife and pulled up and left the end of the trunk looking like an old timer who sharped a wooden lead pencil. I decided to walk around the pond to discover were the culprit took the trees and found them topping off the new Beaver Dam. I sent copys of my photos to insured and the carrier just kept giving me their odd ball claims for weeks on end.