The Flying Carpet

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Omar T. Tentmaker had immigrated from Iran shortly before the fall of the Shah. Persian money was difficult to take out of the country. Omar purchased an entire inventory of Persian rugs and shipped them, with the rest of his household goods, to the United States. 

The immigrant informed Omar that for $500 he had purchased a policy to insure his household goods. When he was the victim of a burglary, his insurer, with apparent glee, gave him a check for $20,000. It seemed the insurer paid merely because $20,000 was the first value he put down for his goods.

Omar and his fellow immigrant both knew that in their tradition one never opens a negotiation with the number one wishes to receive. His acquaintance informed him that he had demanded, for his small prayer rug, $20,000 from his insurer. He expected the insurer to negotiate the price down to its true value of $2,500. To the great surprise of Omar and the acquaintance, the insurer paid the amount demanded merely because a rug dealer had given the acquaintance an appraisal stating that the value of the prayer rug was $20,000.

Omar decided to take advantage of the great American insurance industry. 

Each immigrant received instruction how to deal with their insurance company and how to authenticate the existence of the rugs they claimed stolen. They would tell the insurance company that they had no receipts. The rugs, each would claim, had been purchased in Iran. When the Shah fell, they brought them with them as household goods.

Mr. Tentmaker now spends his days in his garden and his nights playing cards with his fellow immigrants at the Persian- American Cultural Center. He is considered a leader of the community.

When the special limit of liability was adopted, the rash of Persian rug thefts stopped. It was as if a ring of burglars suddenly left the country.

Immigrant communities in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other major cities found other ways to earn money.

ZALMA OPINION

Sometimes, the easiest way to avoid fraudulent claims is to take away the subject matter. The immigrant community found a way to get rich off Persian rugs and that scheme was defeated by changing the policy to the limit that could be recovered for theft of a Persian rug.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

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