Photo: TAO-CHUAN YEH / AFP / Getty Images
A student in Taiwan had his legs amputated in hopes of receiving a $1.3 million in insurance payouts was arrested for fraud.
Only identified by his last name, Zhang, left his feet in a bucket of dry ice for more than 10 hours to get them frostbitten. Zhang's friend from high school, Liao, persuaded him to carry out the scam, because he suffered losses from trading cryptocurrency, and tricked Zhang into signing a legal note obligating him to pay $800,000, as he told Zhang that gangsters were after him.
Liao and Zhang rode around Taipei on a motorbike at night, to present the claim that Zhang was frostbiten while riding the vehicle. Days before, Zhang bought expensive policies for life insurance, travel insurance, and accident insurance, then after soaking his feet in dry ice Zhang was admitted to hospital. Hospital staff sensed something was wrong, when his legs had no shoe or sock marks, and his injuries appeared symmetrical, which are inconsistent with naturally occurring frostbite. Also, the weather on that night was also nowhere close to below freezing, as it was about 42 degrees Fahrenheit.
Unfortunately, Zhang's legs were amputated below the calf due to his frostbite, as police found the plastic bucket used to freeze Zhang's feet, insurance documents, a white polystyrene box for dry ice, eight mobile phones, and a tablet computer. Liao and Zhang were arrested and charged with fraud and aiding and abetting serious injury.
Now Zhang did claim $7,200 from one insurer, but this money would be seized.
Consistency is the Hobgoblin.