Claim Payout Was $22K, But Insurance Fraud Investigation Digs Up Hummer

Behind a barn off a dirt road in Washington County near the Tibbie community, a track hoe began digging and with every scoop of earth it pulled away what had been buried for six years was slowly revealed a white, 2006 Hummer H2.

‘We are looking at an individual who apparently owned this vehicle, that buried the vehicle and collected quite a bit of insurance off of it,’ said Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer. He said $22,000 was paid on the insurance claim.

‘We had our suspicions all along,’ said Stringer. ‘We had a vehicle in the last few months that led us to believe that this individual was doing a lot of insurance fraud.’

The owner of the vehicle is listed as Bruce Eugene Parnell. ‘The vehicle has been buried for six years. We have been looking for this vehicle for several months. We got some tips a few months ago and we just been working on it,’ said Stringer.

The sheriff said this is one of 16 insurance claims Parnell has made over the years and has been paid thousands of dollars, ‘and some of the claims may be legitimate but there again it is just my opinion there may be some that are not.’