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Chris Paschenko / AP file
A wrecker driver attaches a towing cable to the Bugatti Veyron that was driven into the water in La Marque, Texas, on Nov. 11, 2009.
Remember the guy who drove that million-dollar car into a Texas swamp a couple of years ago? A jury will have to decide whether he was trying to scam an insurance company to double his money on it.
This video of the incident on YouTube has drawn more than 2.6 million people eager to watch Andy House, an auto dealer in Lufkin, Texas, drive the $1 million French-built Bugatti Veyron — one of only 300 ever made — into a lagoon in LaMarque, near Galveston, in November 2009:
A passing motorist shot video of the $1 million supercar plunging into the swamp. (Warning Offensive language in the commentary.)
Since then, the insurance company, Philadelphia Indemnity of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., has sued, claiming insurance fraud, and the federal magistrate's judge hearing the suit has decided he's not qualified to sort out the "quizzical factual circumstances" in the bizarre case.
The insurance company claims House borrowed $1 million from a friend to buy the car and then bought insurance on it as a collector's vehicle, valuing it at more than $2 million. It says he drove it into the swamp to collect the insurance, which was supposed to go to the friend who lent him the purchase money.
(That man, Lloyd Gillespie, is also a defendant in the suit, which you can read here in .pdf form.)
House says he swerved off the road to avoid hitting a pelican, but the insurance company says there's no pelican in the video. Plus, it says it went to the scene and found no skid marks, and it further alleges that House "left the vehicle running for over fifteen minutes while it was submerged until it died on its own causing unnecessary damage to the vehicle's engine."
Both sides asked Judge John R. Froeschner to dismiss the case in their favor on Nov. 10, but he refused in an order filed last week (.pdf).
"In the humble opinion of this court, this case involves quizzical factual circumstances that compel credibility determinations which this court may not make at the summary judgment stage," he wrote.
No date was set for the trial.
Leave a Comment:
Lol, he should have told them he was leaning down to snort a line, it would have been believable....
A beautiful car wasted by a very stupid person that will be jailed for insurance fraud. This was NO ACCIDENT!
You'd think he would have waited until nighttime, or at least picked a less well-traveled road. If you're going to pull a seven-figure scam that's pretty obvious to the naked eye, it would seem like the first thing you want is NO WITNESSES.
What pelican?
I love that they didn't bleep out the surprise of the guys taking the video. They were genuinely horrified.
Was he auditioning to for a cabinet position in the Whitehouse? Will Obama hire him as the new "Car Czar"?. New Whitehouse Motto---"You can see our economic vision for the USA shown in this Youtube Video".
You know something bill-765872 for a change it would be nice to read these articles with out some donkey like you trying to turn it into some kind of political statement. They are talking about insurance fraud and a car worth more than 1 million dollars so please stay on point with the subject and leave all the other unrelated crap out of it.
Andres----BOO HOO...Unfortunately for you, this is still the USA where freedom of speech is available to those who have no sense of humor (you) and those who do (me). Tissue? BTW there are some political statements on the next page for you" Mr Thought Police"
I remember seeing this when it happened and as so often is the case these days IT WAS FILMED. Bet good ol boys Andy & Lloyd thought they could pull a fast one and make a quick mil....unh unh. Instead they are out the value of the car and could go to jail. When I saw it I thought it was a stunt of some kind. Pretty good engine to run underwater for 15 minutes. Most cars engines would die almost immediately.
Wow, this guy is a real criminal mastermind. Go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect two million dollars.
This isn't a complex case, there is someone filming him because they knew he was going to drive into the water. And who in the history of driving has swerved off of the road to avoid a bird?
And bill-765872: Hate to break it to you, but your freedom of speech is irrelevant here. A site owner or moderator can boot you for any reason they see fit. Posting something of "no value," like politicizing every article you see, is a perfectly good reason.
LOL BigAl. Ya, why waste such a nice car on such a cheap and obvious scam.
Ya, he definitely didn't swerve and there definitely wasn't any bird there.
FREEDOM of SPEECH does NOT include the freedom to play Constitutional Interpreter
while play victim to an accurate & constitutionally correct assessment bill-765872
You cannot claim to be an American & for the Constitution & scream SHUTUP simultaneously
without looking like an ignoramus to anyone with an IQ higher than an unplugged 6 slice Toaster.
Act like a grown-up when you come to play with them !
Jack Colton you are correct !
you can see the bird in the road if you look closely and rewind it a couple times ::2cents::
What in the world are the chances that some random dudes driving down the highway at the same time would video tape this? He has to be a totally unlucky SOB for that to happen.
Best example of Karma I've ever seen...
Certainly unlucky but plausable when you are driving a million dollar car.
What a butt, I'd be tickled with a car 1/10th the price.
Drive a million dollar car down the road and you have to figure people are going to gawk, and more than likely take pictures/video.
The lack of skid mark claim is pretty lame, though. I expect this car is equipped with anti-lock brakes that should not lock up and leave a mark.
thats true about the anti lock brakes.that dude is as stupid as my old roommate was we were at a party and i just had my first beer and some girls called so i asked roommate hey man can i take your car cause i had a honda civic and he had a bmw 550 or 650 series.so i was on the way to pick the five hotties up and a block away i hit a dear but u colud still drive the car.so i told him just go out on a country road one night when u were sober and just call police and say y ou hit a dear he said ok.well a cpl weeks later he said can u help me clean the car sure ill help.so i asked why you trying to get the dear hair out and he said he rearended some one and was just trying to get both accidents covered bi one claim.well it didnt work innsurance didnt cover it.the funniest part of the story is he was or is a lawyer you think he would have been smart enough to figure out the dear thing and get it fixed.gues some lawyers just lack common sense
Paul3,
Looks like you got a brain injury that day.
No, what are the chances that the guys in the video are listening to the song "Wrong Way" by Sublime....really, really, I can't stop laughing
These days there are video cameras EVERYWHERE. You do something, expect it to be taped.
As a total supercar fanatic myself, if I was sitting in the passenger seat, I too would be taking a video of that car on my cell phone. That is Veyron! Do you understand that? It's a Veyron!!!
Nuet Eny Meire
Not only did he not swerve & brake before going in the water; there was no indication of the dropped phone, where the vehicle would have moved in lane position or jerked and look at where he went in. It seems as if he took the only spot on the side of the road where a patch of smooth terrain was available so he wouldn't have to make a bumpy splash going in. His friend, knowing what was going to happen deserves jail time just as much as he does. Let's just hope some high-priced lawyer doesn't get him off the hook, because it's plain as day he's guilty as sin is sin. As much as I can't stand the greedy insurance company industry, you have to be on their side in this case, it's clear as day.
I'm still curious where that car is now. Salvage title for sale on E-bay?
The car is the subject of a pending multimillion dollar lawsuit. Do you really think it would be up for sale at the moment?
Aside from a bit of smell... I'd buy it as a wrecker and drive it like I bought it for full-price!
If it is as expensive as they say I couldn't afford the salvage fee.
It would actually cost as much to fix it as buy a new one.
The engine is fried. It has mold and corrosion built up on precision hand-made electrical parts... Robin's right, it would cost nearly as much to fix as to purchase a new one. If the video wasn't available, the guy probably would have gotten away with it!
This making money off the destruction of something in pristine/near pristine order is a very sick character flaw.
Best Offer..... For Sale one silver grey Bugatti Veyron boat ..................... anchor.
Pelican NOT included.
Perhaps it could be salvaged, using a drivetrain from a more pedestrian car, such as a Ford or Chevy...
Invisible Hand--i can't tell you how sick that makes me feel.
Single source on those parts for sure. If he got a Veyron for $1,000,000 it was discounted anyway. Wonder how many miles he put on it before putting it in the drink?
Doesn't look like a terribly defensive swerving to avoid a pelican move to me. In fact if you could pick a perfect spot to drive into that ditch and not give yourself whiplash that looks like it. Judgement against the driver for being a moron who is willing to BORROW a million bucks to buy a car.
It looks the only thing he swerved to avoid was the road.
That dude was aiming for the swamp.
Judgement against the maroon who lent the million bucks for the scam.
If you look closely at 0:14.5 there is a pelican, but he swerved the wrong way.
Most people who have the privilege of driving a car like that would rather run over the pelican (if there was one to begin with), than to risk having their elegant machinery end up in a swamp.
What pelican? I've hit deer on the roadway rather than leave it.
People, (especially the summer ones) don't realize how ubiquitous video is.
.
I own the car. I have it in my garage fixing it.
Better to scam insurance with a car , than killing a person for insurance money , I guess......throw him in jail....
The dude's an idiot. I would rather have the car than the two million.. ://
Only an arrogant pompous ass would drive around a car that cost a million dollars.
Keep your stupid remarks to yourself..... The Buggatti Veyron is an extremely nice car that is worth every penny of its cost.
If he had to borrow the million to buy it, he couldn't possibly afford to maintain a car like that. So let's see, he had to borrow the money (and I would assume satisfy the lender that he'd be able to repay), couldn't afford payments on the loan much less the maintenance costs too, and managed to get filmed driving it into the swamp. I'm sure the old pelican in the road one will fly. This guy is so cooked. Give him credit for style though (if not smarts).
At first blush, this guy should be put away, for just being so stupid!!! I wonder if he is still friends with the other guy who loaned him the million bucks. I bet not.
Sam: I guess it ain't worth anything, now.....
well maybe 5-7
years for insurance fraud.
Graham: This scam was perpetrated by the LENDER. The driver was going to get a percentage for being the record title owner and doing the "driving."
The part that is still unclear is who/why the video was made. Just some folks who happened by and knew the kind of rare and valuable car they were looking at and happened to have a video camera? Spooky.
You have heard of the "YouTube generation", no? It sounded like young men in the car where the video was shot. A few young men tend to like exotic cars, and a few of them tend to carry phones with video capabilities. I am not so young, but if I were driving down the road and saw a car like that, I might very well tell my passenger to capture it on video. That really doesn't seem so spooky.
My 11-year-old stepson loves exotic cars so whenever his mother and I see one on the road we take pictures of it to send to him when he's with his dad. He does the same thing back, as I build street rods and have always been into cars. Seeing a rare vehicle on the road is much more exciting than seeing a trailer queen that's only driven on and off a trailer at a car show (in some cases they're actually pushed and never started).
I am amazed at what people will do for money. Good for the person who caught him on tape. I hope he loses everything for this scam. No swerve, no pelican, just a moron trying to make a quick buck that all of society would pay for.
"What is it?" ... "Pretty sure it's a Lambo, dude."
Retards.
How do you piss of an Intalian? Call a French car an Italian car...
Except the Bugatti Veyron is German - it's made by Audi. Look it up. It's the world's fastest street-legal car, at (last I checked) 257 miles per hour on a test track.
The venom Gt is made just down the road in Katy Texas and will spank the Veyron www.venomgt.com/
Definitively a scam but the original owner.
Sorry Kammeyer...the Dagger GT....2,700 hp, 315 mph is.
www.gtr-xs.com
Actually, the Veyron was designed and commissioned by Volkswagen Group (Audi) and built, in France, by Bugatti, and is only available through Bugatti sales, not Volkswagen.
The Hennessey Venom GT is actually manufactured in Sealy, just west of Katy, and there are four of them, not exactly qualifying it as a production car...yet. It hasn't been independently speed tested, although if the manufacturer's claims prove to be true, it will definitely out-perform the Veyron.
hey there blackbird but is the DAGGER/GT street leagal and is it a production car,how many have been built,are the still being made,is it leagal to own and drive in the us on public roads.my thing about fast cars and the us there is always a speed limit and you always take a chance of getting a ticket but if you have a car that goes that fast and is worth over 1 mill you have the cash to pay the ticket and ticket after ticket after ticket.so you just pay over a 1 mill for a car you drive once and a while to impress you buddys and the ladies and you cant even really enjoy what the car is designed for but only minutes and seconds at a time safely.if you have that kinda cash i think it would make more since to start a race team of some sort get sponsers and race on a track were you can fullfill you need for speed and get the true exp with out having to worry about getting in an accident like hulk hogans kid and maybe face a felony and jail time.but if you have a race team and your the driver you have pleanty of fun,stories,something to show for it.not just a $1mill car that sits in garage and every time you take it out you lose money.owell i have wrote to much lol lol
I know a guy in my building Paul who drives a custom tuned SS Camaro putting out about 475. He works for an import company which customizes high end cars. He has a client who owns an Enzo which probably is about a mil. He put another mil in it just to have the meanest car on the block. Others keep coming in and upping their horsepower too. Why? because they can afford it and want the most tricked out vehicle. Sort of like a sickness.....it's never enough. Sad too. True the Dagger GT could only achieve it's maximum speed on something like an airport runway or special track much like the Veyron achieved it's top speed on the VW test track. These types of cars could be classed as "experimental" and the toys of the super rich. I drive a tricked out Altima Coupe with special grill, cold air intake, grounding kit, Greddy exhaust system, aluminum mags + fast tires and just clocked it at 4.8 for 60 which is pretty good and I didn't spend a whole lot of money. Guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this chap who drove into the swamp didn't appreciate his. Car karma got him. Cheers.
Hey Blackbird did you fly one of those jets? I saw one at an Air Force Museum close to Englin AFB in the Fla panhandle. That was a heck of a machine in it's day. I used to love to watch those guys over the Gulf of Mexico doing there maneuvers while I was out fishing. They looked like they were having a ball.
My fave. My avatar is a Hawker Hunter another favorite. No SR-71 but I did fly in a P-51D out of Chino, CA named Wee Willy II. Believe it or not I was planning a MiG29UB flight next year out of Nizhny, Russia. 15K for 45 minutes of TopGun manouevers + sound barrier and "take the stick" opportunity. The Altima might go to pay the cost :-)
They've got a few F-35A's down there at Eglin as that's it's training home and first operational squadron operating from there. Chances are the project is going to fall under the axe. The "A" version might survive but the B & C are probably toast. Keep your eyes glued to the sky.
who would loan a friend $1million dollars to buy a car?
A friend looking for a portion of the insurance settlement.
Once a car's a swimmer, it's NEVER a winner. Will be funny, that vehicle will cause financial peril to anyone who touches forever. Already has, and what a nice scam................
Gee, someone who actually knows what he's talking about. Also, there was no swerve. The guy drove it straight into the water.
Of course it's a swimmer. Just mount an outboard motor and some pontoons, viola. Fixed!
IBuy....sounds like a Top Gear challenge
Top Gear has featured the car several times since 2006.
Hence the 928 in Risky Business was bait after it's swan dive.
Lets see: In the water, new engine, upholstery, get rid of the river smell..new dashboard..electronics..
I hope to god he gets the settlement: Its gonna take the million he gets to repair it.
Wow, I guess when you drive a car like that, you have to assume someone is video'ing you...
Those guys were stoned and didn't wreck, lol.... "dude thats a lambo" You have to be high if you can't tell the difference between a Bugati and a Lamborgini.
It ran for 15 min underwater?
I own a semi-exotic car and you would be amazed how many people video record me driving the speed limit down the highway... I would say the chance that somebody would be taping the incident at random is VERY high. There are also videos of people wrecking Corvettes on test drives and Vipers crashing into things on the roadway, all by chance.
Sounds to me like the guy thought he had a great idea to make some cash and was to stupid to make sure no one was around to video tape it !!!!! Think if I was going to scam a couple million from the insurance company I would make sure there was no one around to see. Put a helmet on him and give him SSI, cuz he is a f&%$#ng stupid a$$
Darwin would be impressed!
This guy is so screwed!!!!!!!!!!! All he had to do is put it up for sale at auction at his dealership. People were snapping up these cars as soon as they got one available. He probly could have doubled his money thru auction!
Pelican? Yeah right.
total morons.
Hey MSNBC! Find a journalist who understands the law if they a going to write about legal issues. This statement is factually incorrect: "the federal magistrate's judge hearing the suit has decided he's not qualified to sort out the quizzical factual circumstances." The case is at the summary judgment stage, the judge is simply saying that he can't decide without hearing evidence, not that he's not qualified! Sheesh!
Roger that. The author didn't know what he was talking about.
It seems they rarely write about anything they know. Thanks JI for explaining that. I didn't understand that part at all in the story.
A million $ car? A bird in the grill is not worth more than a car in the drink. A million for a car! Somebody has their priorities f--kup.
This 250 mph car is so solidly built, I think a pelican would just look like bug splatter at normal street speeds. This dude couldn't have been doing more than 30 mph when he hit the water.