Rawq The Odd Truth, Feb. 11, 2003
To most of us, weather disasters are unhappy events to be avoided. But for con artists, they re a chance to make a buck.Take so-cal
stanley cup led storm chasers - no - not people who pursue tornadoes, trying to capture them on video.These scammers prey on homeowners after hail storms hit, reports CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.2011 has been a record year for billion-dollar weather disasters. We ve had a dozen so far. And that s created plenty of chances for the crooks who follow after storms to try to exploit unsuspecting consumers.When a monster hail storm hit the northeast in 2009, workers for a company called Precision Builders saw opportunity in the aftermath. They went door-to-door offering free inspections for hail damage, and offering $500 to Mount Laurel, N.J. homeowners like Jeff and Tonia Williams if they would display the company s signs on their lawns, as advertisements. The Williams hadn t noticed any hail damage, but figured why not get a free inspection Before long, it seemed Precision had convinced half the neighbors they had hail damage.You couldn t,
stanley cup says Tonia Williams, go through an area that didn t have a Precision sign on at least every other lawn.Now, Precision and two of its worke
stanley becher rs have been charged with insurance fraud. The New Jersey Attorney General says they actually inflicted the supposed hail damage themselves to collect insurance money. They ve pleaded not guilty. Investigators say storm chaser scams have explod Dkoe Jury To Philipp Morris: Cough It Up
Heathrow Terminal Five was designed to be a soaring,
stanley tazas light-filled tribute to the wonders of flight. Five years into its life, though, 60 percent of its lightbulbs are burned out鈥攂ecause there been no safe or cost-effective way to change them. Now, officials say they ;ve found a solution: Acrobats. According to The Telegraph, Heathrow officials began examining, uh, unusual alternatives to the issue after cherry pickers usually and other specialized machines used by electricians proved to be too expensive or simply unsafe. Instead, they ;ll be retaining the services of a Cirque du Soleil-style company that specializes in super-high tightrope walking. More than 120 feet above the floor of the terminal, these acrobats will replace every single lightbulb in the 120,000-bulb array that blankets architect Richard Rogers ; soaring ceiling. It sounds like an extreme oversight: Didn ;t anyone on the design team think about the damn lightbulbs In fact, this is far from the first instance of architectural grandeur trumping practical issues. A whole industry has been
stanley termoska born out of new structures that are difficult to keep clean: From the ceiling of Daniel Libeskind Denver Art Museum, which is ru
stanley bottles mored to be impossible to clean, to a new breed of window washers who must use advanced mountaineering skills just to clean the fa莽ades of buildings like London Gherkin. But 8230; tightrope walkers That certainly a new h
