Senior suffers for teen's alleged crime
84-year-old Roy Prince didn’t exactly have the 2009 he had hoped for. In July, his wife of 60 years, Betty, passed away. Then in November, a vehicle came crashing into his home, triggering a frustrating ordeal that would end up hijacking his life savings and leaving him feeling uneasy in his own home. “The best way to describe it is that it felt like a bomb went off,” Prince said of the Nov. 14 incident in which an allegedly drunk 17-year-old boy drove a Mercury sedan into the side of his garage. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday and the Roseville man was at his dining room table, visiting with neighbor Kathy Frey. Frey actually saw the vehicle airborne for a split second as it flew by the front window. The teenaged driver, whose name is being withheld due to his status as a minor, reportedly fled the scene, but was eventually arrested on suspicion of DUI. But for Prince, the incident was just the beginning of a massive financial and emotional headache. Since Roseville Police made the determination that the teen driver involved had taken a friend’s parents’ car on a joyride at the time of the wreck, the ruling on the accident report was that the Mercury was “stolen.” And since that was the official finding, Farmer’s Insurance, which carries a policy on the vehicle, has refused to pay for damages. That means Prince and his homeowner’s insurance are left to pick up the tab. “It’s cost me a couple thousand dollars so far, but when everything adds up, I think it’s going to be around $5,000 or $6,000,” he said. In addition to a $1,000 insurance deductible, Prince was left with a repair bill for his own vehicle, which was damaged while it sat parked in the garage. He even had to rent a car for two weeks because his was stuck in the garage. Then there was damage to items inside the garage ? part of which will be covered by his homeowner policy - and trash that had to be hauled away at his expense. For someone like Prince, who receives no retirement pension and lives off his life savings, every dollar counts. But the hit extends well beyond his bank account. The traumatic event has left him with an unpleasant feeling about being in the house Betty and him lovingly shared for so many years. “I don’t want to move but I just feel its awful now,” he said. “When you get to be 84, things affect you differently. It’s not like I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but it’s certainly left me feeling uncomfortable.” He said that in a recent juvenile court proceeding, a judge ordered the teen to pay him restitution. But since the boy is already making monthly restitution payments to another party for an unrelated incident that totaled $9,000, its unlikely Prince will ever receive any payment in his lifetime.
”He has to pay that off before I even start receiving anything,” Prince said. “And since he’s only paying about $20 or $30 a month, I’ve got to live to be 123 to collect anything.” Frey and her husband David said the entire ordeal has been a nightmare and believes Farmer’s should step up and reimburse their neighbor. “I really believe that they’re taking advantage of an 84-year-old man,” Kathy Frey said. “First this poor man loses his wife and now he has to deal with all this.” Both she and Prince said most of all they are grateful that no children were playing in the street that afternoon, as they often are on Saturdays. “I wonder what would have happened if that car had killed someone,” Prince said. “Would (Farmer’s) still say they’re not accountable because it was stolen?”
The Farmer’s claims adjuster who was in contact with Prince was reached for comment, but did not call back with an explanation by press time.
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Farmer's insurance sucks...and this is just ANOTHER reason why. Mr. Prince, I wish you the best dear man!
Has anyone contacted the California Victims Compensation Board? http://www.boc.ca.gov/providers/billing.aspx Victims of crime are entitled to compensation. Mr. Prince may also be entitled to counseling paid by the state to help him deal with the trauma.
The Victim Compensation Program (VCP) is considered the payer of last resort and can only pay treatment expenses after other available sources of payment have been applied to a bill. Those sources include, but are not limited to, health insurance, workers compensation insurance, automobile insurance, Medi-cal, and Medicare.
Contact Our Customer Service Section Regarding the Status of Billing and Payments
Victim service providers provide invaluable service to crime victims, helping them recover from the physical and emotional trauma of violent crime. The VCP's Customer Service Section is dedicated to providing service providers with the information and assistance they need. Call a representative toll-free at (800) 777-9229.
Service providers can also use the Application/Bill Status Online Request Form to request the status of applications or bills that have been submitted to the Victim Compensation Program. You may also download and fax the PDF Form PDF version.
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Any healthcare provider that has questions about serving victims of crime, payments or other issues, please contact our Provider Ombudsman, Robin Foemmel Bie at (916) 491-3759
I don't know how the police report descibed the incident, but the laws concerning auto theft do make a distinction between an unauthorized joyride and outright grand theft auto. Perhaps Mr. Prince should consider a lawsuit against Farmers to compell them to pay up as they are the insurer of the vehicle involved.
Failing that, go after the driver's parents...Mr. Prince's doesn't have to depend on a 17 yo's ability to pay...he's a monor under the jurisdiction of his parents....assuming.
I meant "minor".
God, this is such a terrible thing to hear. The man seems to be getting shafted every which way and through no fault of his own. I doubt this young teenager had any idea the pain and anxiety he(she?) would cause by such a selfish action. In the middle of the day and you crash a car into somebody's house drunk? That is something very serious and I hope that justice is served by: Mr Prince being FULLY reimbursed, and this young kid spending 1,000 hours painting over graffiti and working at a local soup kitchen for the homeless.
I hope things will work out for Mr. Prince and the insurance company or the CVCB/VCB (as mentioned in a previous comment) will cover his costs. It's a travesty that he has to foot the bill for this.
In the meantime, while he's still responsible for the costs, I wondered if there was any way I could help. I contacted Eric Laughlin (the reporter) to see if a fund had been set up to help out Mr. Prince - I'm certainly willing to make a donation. There's nothing official, but Eric said I could send a donation to him at the Press Tribune and he'd see that Mr. Prince received it. I don't have a lot to donate, but every little bit helps.
According to an e-mail I just received from Eric, Mr. Prince appreciates the offer, but does not want any donations. I sure hope this all works out for him.
This is awful, dealing with an insurance issue of mine own right now I understand were he is coming from. The insurance adjuster job is to get away with paying little to nothing. I dont know how these people sleep at night knowing the struggle & frustration they put people through. Just Dirty! Give the man what he is due!
Farmers or ANY other insurance carrier is NOT responsible for what happens in the event of a vehicle theft. Do you want your insurance policy to pay out for damages caused by the theive of your vehicle - no need to answer we all know it is NO. How about Prince's homeowners policy, why are THEY leaving him out and not fully compensating him? How about the liabilty policy of the suspects parents. They most likely have a homeowners policy, or renters insurance policy that has liability coverage.