Insurance Cash Motive For Torching Omaha Home In Foreclosure, Says Investigator

Years ago, homeowners who dutifully made their home mortgage payments until the loan was fully paid would engage in a ritual konwn as "burning the mortgage" whereby, upon receiving their mortgage papers back from the bank (yes, in the old days and unlike today, the bank would actually return that (negotiable) promissory note that you signed at the mortgage closing years earlier after it was fully paid), the homeowner would burn the loan papers as a symbol that the mortgage obligation no longer existed.

In recent times, however, some financially strapped homeowners are increasingly engaging in a slightly different ritual; rather than paying off the home mortgage and torching the papers, they're torching the home and letting the insurance company pay off the mortgage. The following excerpts from the Omaha World-Herald describe one homeowner suspected of doing same:

• Arson charges were filed Friday in Omaha against the owner of a Rockbrook neighborhood home that was badly damaged by fire in November. Brad T. Cox, 27, is accused of having a friend, 29-year-old Joseph Smith, start the fire at Cox's house, [...] . The alleged motive: insurance fraud. A big clue: Some of Cox's furniture ended up in Smith's home, [...] , investigators say. The Nov. 10 blaze caused an estimated $240,000 damage to Cox's house, according to its insurer, Travelers Insurance, said Capt. John Glesinger, an Omaha Fire Department investigator. At the time of the fire, the house was going into foreclosure, Glesinger said. "Our allegation is that Mr. Cox wanted to have the house burned to collect insurance money on it," Glesinger said. Cox is accused of persuading Smith to start the fire. "This was done while Mr. Cox was out of town to make sure the shadow of suspicion would not be cast upon him," Glesinger said.

For more, see Owner, friend face arson charges in Omaha house fire.

For other stories on fires & foreclosures, go here and go here. foreclosure arson yak