Owner of Hummer Found Buried in Alabama Indicted on Insurance Fraud
Ten months after a vehicle was found buried behind a barn in south Alabama, the former owner of the Hummer has been indicted by a grand jury.
Bruce Parnell, of Washington County, reported the 2006 Hummer H2 stolen in 2016 and he collected between $10,000 and $22,000 on an insurance claim, according to local news and sheriff’s reports. In a preliminary hearing last year, investigators said that Parnell had told a friend that he would make the vehicle disappear and the friend should not ask questions, WKRG-TV news reported.
Acting on a tip, investigators dug behind the barn near Tibbie, north of Mobile, and found the Hummer, which appeared to have been crushed and torn apart. Parnell’s attorney said that Parnell was in Mobile at the time the car was stolen, the TV news outlet reported.
Almost a year later, the evidence was presented to a grand jury in the county, and it returned an indictment last week.
The Hummer claim was one of 16 insurance claims that Parnell had made over the years, and the sheriff said that authorities had suspicions about the claims. If convicted, Parnell could face as much as two years in prison and a $30,000 fine, authorities said.