{"id":86,"date":"2011-05-20T16:02:39","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T20:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/?p=86"},"modified":"2011-06-28T16:05:05","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T20:05:05","slug":"joy-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"Joy Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

US refuses to pay Michigan insurer for Ferrari wrecked in Ky. during ride by FBI agent <\/strong><\/p>\n

By Associated Press\u00a0 (Published in May\u00a020, 2011, Washington Post)<\/h3>\n

DETROIT \u2014 An FBI agent assigned to move a rare Ferrari wrecked it during a short drive in Kentucky, and its owner is now suing the U.S. Justice Department, which has refused to pay $750,000 for the car.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department recently responded to the lawsuit by saying it\u2019s not liable for certain goods when they\u2019re in the hands of law enforcement. The government also has refused to release most documents related to the crash.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari F50 was stolen in 2003 from a dealer in Rosemont, Pa., and discovered five years later. The FBI kept it in Lexington, Ky., as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

FBI agent Fred Kingston was to move the Ferrari from a garage in May 2009. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson said Kingston invited him on a \u201cshort ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a few seconds after we left the parking lot, we went around a curve and the rear of the car began sliding,\u201d Thompson said in an email released to Motors Insurance Co., the dealer\u2019s insurer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agent tried to regain control but the car fishtailed and slid sideways up onto the curb. The vehicle came to rest against a row of bushes and a small tree,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

He was not hurt, but Kingston needed a few stitches for a cut on his head.<\/p>\n

Motors Insurance took ownership of the car after it paid the dealer for the theft. The company told the government that the 1995 Ferrari, one of only 50 in the U.S., suffered substantial damage in the Kentucky crash and is a \u201ctotal loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt heart, it is a race vehicle\u201d and is not built like a typical car, truck or SUV, the insurer said in a claim for payment, partly explaining why it sought $750,000.<\/p>\n

The Southfield, Mich.-based company filed a lawsuit in March after the Justice Department refused to pay. Motors Insurance has also filed a lawsuit to try to get records about the incident through the federal Freedom of Information Act.<\/p>\n

The government has been secretive, saying most records are exempt. It only released Thompson\u2019s email.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really know what happened. We\u2019ve asked for a lot of information,\u201d Motors Insurance attorney Richard Kraus said in an interview this week.<\/p>\n

A judge has set a June 13 hearing in the case.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. A<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US refuses to pay Michigan insurer for Ferrari wrecked in Ky. during ride by FBI agent By Associated Press\u00a0 (Published in May\u00a020, 2011, Washington Post) DETROIT \u2014 An FBI agent assigned to move a rare Ferrari wrecked it during a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}