Former Liberty Mutual employee charged with insurance fraud

That it could be fraud and lead to arrest didn’t ring a bell for a former Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. employee who pawned a diamond ring she later reported missing on insurance forms.

Jessica Epler was charged in Spokane, Washington, with theft and filing a false insurance claim, the Spokesman-Review reported Tuesday.

Ms. Epler reported on her insurance claim that she put her $4,000 ring in her purse while she was out with friends and her purse went missing, the newspaper reported. Ms. Epler had added the ring to her fiance’s renter’s insurance policy in August 2016 and filed the claim in October. 

Ms. Epler inquired about the status of her claim several times and Liberty Mutual asked to interview her. She responded with an e-mail request to withdraw her claim — a turnaround that flagged it as possible fraud, the newspaper reported.

Investigators later found records that Ms. Epler had sold the ring to a Spokane pawn shop a few weeks before filing her claim, the newspaper reported.