.jpg)
A former Liberty Mutual employee in Spokane, Wash., has been charged with theft and insurance fraud after filing a false claim for a diamond ring she said was missing.
Jessica Epler, 25, had added her $4,000 engagement ring to her fiancé’s renter’s insurance policy in August of 2016, according to a report by The Spokesman-Review. In October, she filed an insurance claim for the ring, saying that she put the ring in her purse while she was out with friends, and the purse went missing.
According to Kara Klotz, a spokesperson for the Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner, Liberty Mutual flagged the claim as suspicious. Epler inquired several times about the status of the claim, but when the insurer asked to interview her, she asked that the claim be withdrawn, The Spokesman-Review reported. Liberty Mutual denied the request and alerted the state insurance commissioner.
Investigators found that Epler had actually sold the ring to a pawn shop a few weeks before she filed the claim. Epler has since relocated to Pennsylvania and has not responded to investigators’ attempts to contact her, The Spokesman-Review reported.
