BY ROGER SMITH and RACHEL DOVE
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
DEBORD — An Inez woman and two Debord men were arrested Jan. 4, accused of burning a vehicle to defraud an insurance company and creditor.
Susan Cox, 61, of Inez, and 61-year-old Harold Moore and 28-year-old Jackie Haney, both of Debord, are facing felony charges.
Police caught Moore and Haney in the act of burning Cox’s car on Honey Branch off New Route 3 in Debord, and say Cox arranged it to defraud her insurance company and a creditor.
According to Martin County Sheriff John Kirk, a call came into the sheriff’s office Jan. 4 about a sighting of black smoke on Honey Branch. Kirk had asked the public to report sightings of dark-colored smoke due to the county’s high number of phone line thefts. Believing that burning cable might be the source of the smoke, Kirk and Chief Deputy Chris Kidd traveled to the location and, to their surprise, discovered a vehicle on fire.
“The incident was suspicious from the get-go because typically, when someone steals a vehicle, they don’t just steal it and go straight and burn it,” Kirk said. “Once a vehicle is stolen, it is either used in the commission of a crime or stripped of any valuable parts that can be sold for profit and then set on fire. That wasn’t the case with this vehicle.”
The sheriff says that shortly after he and Kidd discovered the vehicle fire, a call came through to the Martin County dispatch from Cox reporting that her vehicle was stolen from the Cardinal Country Store parking lot on New Route 3.
Cox claimed she realized her vehicle was missing when she walked outside to drive to the bank to make the store’s deposit. She advised dispatch that she had full insurance on the Nissan as she was still paying for the vehicle. She stated she had purchased the vehicle from Tommy’s Auto Sales.
Kidd reviewed surveillance video recordings for the store and observed the recording process had been interrupted for a few moments right at the time the vehicle was allegedly stolen. He contacted the corporate IT specialist for Cardinal Country Store, who was able to retrieve the missing footage.
Kidd states in the arrest warrant that he reviewed the footage and observed the following:
“Susan Cox placed the key fob to her vehicle in an empty coffee cup and then placed the lid on the cup. The key fob is clearly visible in the empty cup. Mr. Moore drove to the Cardinal Country Store in a white van and parked at the gas pump. Mr. Haney was the passenger in the van.
“Ms. Cox sets the cup containing the key fob on her desk, and a male individual, identified as Harold Pete Moore, comes into her office and she hands him the cup containing the key fob.
“Outside the store, Jackie Haney and Harold Pete Moore are seen standing by the door and looking back toward the manager’s office as if awaiting a signal. Mr. Haney walks toward the driver’s side of the white van parked at the gas pump. Ms. Cox is seen slamming a chair on the floor near the plug-in for the video recorder, and then the video stopped recording. It comes back on a few minutes later, and Mr. Moore and Mr. Haney and the vehicle are gone.
“These events on the video occurred around 5:55 a.m. I contacted Geico Insurance, and they advised Ms. Cox had filed a claim on the vehicle after reporting it stolen. The vehicle is valued at over $20,000.”
The three are facing felony charges of fraudulent insurance acts-$10,000 or more, burning personal property to defraud insurance and defrauding a secured creditor-$10,000. Additional charges against Moore and Haney are pending.