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Man Charged With Chopping Off Friend’s Hand For Insurance Money

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File photo of a jail. (credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images)

File photo of a jail. (credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Cayce man has been charged with insurance fraud after another man’s hand was chopped off.

Thirty-four-year-old Gerald B. Hardin faces six charges, including mail fraud for a 2008 incident in Sumter County where a man’s had was cut off with a pole saw.

Federal indictments state that Hardin and another person used a saw to intentionally cut off the hand of a third person in an insurance fraud scheme. The indictment says the men submitted claims under a homeowner’s insurance policy and three accidental death and dismemberment polices.

It says the men received more than $670,000.

Hardin faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if he is convicted.

It was not clear if he has an attorney.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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  • George Johnson

    The hand of justice will smite you!!

  • George Johnson

    Hahahah…. The long arm of the law??

  • George Johnson

    I wonder…. who else had a hand in this….

  • George Johnson

    Good job fellas!! Give yourselves a hand!!!

  • George Johnson

    I have some stuff that needs to be cut, I wonder if they can lend a hand!!!

  • George Johnson

    These guys were just down on their luck, somebody should give them a HAND UP!!!

  • George Johnson

    At least they weren’t looking for a hand OUT!!

  • Julie

    They were just practicing for when Sharia Law comes to the U.S. !

  • dd

    if they cut off his leg, he woulldn’t have a leg to stand on in a lawsuit or insurance clain

  • Jennifer

    If they only have to pay $250K, then they are still ahead by 420K. Looks like it paid off…

  • Dave

    Get a grip people!!! I wonder who fingered the perps?

  • Dutra

    Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.

    …a man’s had was cut off with a pole saw…

  • Matt C

    ….but they were

  • Scarf

    Delusion Alert!

  • Bob

    Sheesh…if I was part of a hand-lopping conspiracy I don’t think I’d go along with the whole pole-saw method. MAN that would hurt, and there’s got to be a dozen ways to do it faster. Of course, we’re not talking Einstein-stock here….

  • Scarf

    Let’s all give these buffoons a hand. Ya gotta give them a hand for the scheme. Sounds like they all had a hand in the idea. This was hands down the best story in the last 3 seconds. I guess the victim won’t be coming to you with hat in hand. In this case, a bird in hand won’t be better than 2 in the bush. One wonders who else had a hand in this caper. I’m washing my hands of this whole affair.

  • soflodoug

    Im sure the victim was very hand some.

  • Rick O’Shea

    A hand job by your best friend, how good does it get?

  • Herpa Derp

    I agree! Stop Trannys Today!

  • Bernie Bouck

    What IS ” the sound of one hand clapping “?

  • alan

    I can see the discussion now. So you guys will cut my hand off, drive me to the hospital and then we split the insurance money? OK, good idea. Lets do it.

  • Midge Martin
  • DanCalgary

    Typical thief: “Hand over the cash.”

    This guy: “Cash over the hand.”

  • Edwin Buck

    This is nothing new. In the 70′s, a California man paid someone to cut his foot off for insurance. He drugged himself completely and the other man he paid $10,000 to cut off his foot. After the foot was cut off, and the $10,000 paid to the man, the man that cut off the foot spent the money, then turned the man in for insurance fraud. Oh the man with one foot was imprisoned for 15 yrs,

  • DanCalgary

    At least he had one foot outside of prison the entire time.

  • DanCalgary

    Maybe they said, “We’ll cut off your left hand, so you’ll be all right.”

  • Danielle

    Always looking for a hand out!

  • Ohmylumbago

    A hand job gone horribly wrong.

  • DanCalgary

    Definitely not a happy ending.

  • GrandPa

    “… sounds like I good plan… let’s shake-hands to seal-the-deal!”

  • http://www.pocketfives.com/f13/how-much-lose-your-hand-659461/#post6770643 How Much To Lose Your Hand?

    [...] Minute Ago (2/24/2012 7:47pm) http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2012/0…surance-money/ these guys got $670k. not who got what cut (bah-dump, chee!) of the money. Federal indictments [...]

  • craigmk1974

    Wow, it’s crazy how some people will give an arm and a leg to cash in on an insurance claim.

  • Macfad

    Not mine. These comments are childish and juvenile. Seriously, are you all adults? Puns are only funny when the horrid reality of life doesn’t overshadow the shallowness of the joke. For God’s sakes, a man has lost one of his hands and for something as senseless and replaceable as money! The only reason more ludicrous would be as a direct result of a barbaric act of Sharia Law.

  • Jeff Spoz

    That someone would do this to themselves to make money is sad.

    It seems our modern culture is all about self mutilation (piercing, tattoos, plastic surgery, including gender “changes” and mutilation) so this kind of thing is part and parcel.

  • Count Yob

    Here a hand. There a hand. Pretty soon you’re talking real money.

  • craigmk1974

    The guy who got his hand cut off really got the short end of the deal.

  • DanCalgary

    He didn’t “lose” a hand. He made the idiotic decision to attempt fraud by having his friend do this to him. Save your outrage for him and his co-conspirators — they’re the only ones who had a hand in it.

  • mike

    when he was arrested did the cop say to him “put your hand up”

  • Derek

    Lighten up, Francis.

  • Sam

    That pole saw sure came in handy.

  • Claus

    That’s literally lending your friends a hand.

  • DanCalgary

    Then again, you can count their profits on one hand.

  • Joe Biden

    Wow, you must swim in the same shallow end of the gene pool as these three idiots. They all deserve what they get, especially lefty. Stupidity should be painful. He didn’t loose his hand, its right there next to the pole saw. You win for dubest comment, hands down.

  • Donald Daffy

    Gives new meaning to Hand Job….!

  • Mongo The Mental

    So when they put the handcuffs on him ….. he slipped away … police are still baffled.

  • Joe Biden

    Its only going to take half as long to fingerprint him.

  • Joe Biden

    and he could get a job at IHOP and change his name to Ileane

  • Chris

    These guys thought they could make money hand over fist.

  • Darren

    I’ll give you a hand for that one, altough you were a bit out of hand.

  • Darren

    George, you’re really geeting out of hand.

  • Darren

    Leave it to Macfad to give us the back of his hand, he has a real “hand”le on the situation, lest the responses get out of hand. I’ve got to hand it to you Macfad for putting us back in line.

  • Darren

    On the one hand, these are very evil men, on the other hand, I have to admire their entrepreneurial spirit.

  • Sez

    Amazing what people are coming up with now days for some extra bucks.
    We know times are tough, but losing a hand… wow thats a little steep.

    http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
    `

  • DanCalgary

    Indeed. They managed to convert five digits into six digits.

  • Coco

    Give me 5 good reasons this isn’t brilliant idea!

  • richhenk

    uh, what? That’s kind of a leap.

  • CLG

    Free hand jobs with pay. Only in America.

  • MadCharles

    Quite the hand job..

  • http://www.urbanprepping.com/2012/02/25/man-charged-with-chopping-off-friends-hand-for-insurance-money/ Man Charged With Chopping Off Friend’s Hand For Insurance Money «
  • Brian

    I like childish and juvenile…

  • J B

    Need spell check before publishing news articles online

  • Brian

    Yeah seriously, if you had your hand cut off for this, would you share the proceeds with your pals? No effing way!

  • Brian

    On the other hand…. oh wait.

  • Rick O’Shea

    A big thumb up!

  • Brett

    I want to give that dude a high five!

  • handsome1

    Hand me a towel–laughing so hard I’m crying. You guys win the Sarcasm, Cynicism, & Sardonica award–and win it handily!

  • Andrew P.

    #1 He didn’t lose anything.
    #2 $600,000+ is not considered by many to be replaceable.
    #3 The guy is an idiot.

  • Andrew P.

    I would have gone the ninja route.. That can’t be too bad.

  • Andrew P.

    That’s it Jeff. There can’t be any difference between getting a tattoo or piercing, and straight up cutting your hand off for insurance fraud! Sounds pretty equal to me….

    You’re a fool.

  • Sanford

    Soooo, I could get $100,000 for a finger?

  • george

    When you need a mid-day uplift, news stories like this come in handy.

  • george

    Well, not after he got man-hand-led.

  • george

    If a one-handed person claps deep in the woods, does it make a sound?

  • george

    If you try to grab the proceeds away from the other two, you’re going to be shorthanded.

  • george

    Now, let’s not start in with all kinds of heavy-footed comments.

  • jslab129

    They were going to chop off his legs and sue but their lawyer said they didn’t have a leg to stand on.

  • Illiteracy Alert

    “…where a man’s had [sic] was cut off with a pole saw.”

    You can cut off my hat or sever my hand. You can even take off my head.

    But whatever you do, don’t bring that pole saw anywhere near my “had [sic]“.

  • Kristyn

    How did he convince him to go along with this plan?

    “Dude,look. You STILL got the left one!”

  • Wastrel

    Fraud is reason #6 why insurance is simply a bad idea in general. This was so blatant they got caught. It’ll raise your rates anyway.

  • Handy Man Andy

    I have to hand it to CBS and the people who cracked this case. Handing over such a group of criminals who so handily defrauded these insurance companies deserves a round of applause. I wonder if any lawyer will give this man a hand in defending himself. Because if this guy were to win this case, he would probably be getting hand outs from the government. A public defender will really come in handy now that he can’t work at that manual labor hands on job he had.

    Let me give you a hand surviving the apocalypse on 2012. I’ll show you what you should have on hand and a hands on guide on how to use it.
    http://survive-2012-no-matter-what.blogspot.com

  • Thug

    Why would pay that much money out in insurance you could just get another one at any second hand store.

  • http://theprevailingethos.com/2012/02/25/man-chops-off-friends-hand-for-insurance-money/ Man Chops Off Friend’s Hand For Insurance Money | The Prevailing Ethos

    [...] Nutty News South Carolina – A Cayce man has been charged with insurance fraud after another man’s hand was chopped off. Thirty-four-year-old Gerald B. Hardin faces six charges, including mail fraud for an incident in Sumter County where a man’s had was cut off with a pole saw. Federal indictments state that Hardin and another person used a saw to intentionally cut off the hand of a third person in an insurance fraud scheme. The men received more than $670,000.  Full Article [...]

  • Matthew Barchers

    Oh, lighten up. 122 words, 1 misspelling. 99.9% is darn good, especially for a copy-pasted AP wire article.

    Calling out the misspelling in an attempt to help the publisher correct their mistake is fine, but saying “Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.” smacks of “Ah ha! They made a mistake! I’m BETTER and SMARTER than them, and I MUST make that known!” Do you always repeat your points three times? Three times? Three times?!

    Hey, that is pretty effective.

    Effective.

    Effective.

  • Robin

    Somebody somewhere did something. Great story.

  • Rex Dart Eskimo Spy

    I wonder who fingered him.

  • aeroguy48

    One Hand in the cookie jar

  • Jolie

    LOL…that is funny.

  • Jim

    These guys where to handy to take a hand out. So they decided to take matters into their own hands. But things got out of hand when they wanted cash in hand, I got to hand it to them they weren’t afaraid to get their hands dirty,

  • Jim

    Moe, Curly and Lefty

  • Shawn

    I think they should hand over their voters card.

  • http://www.usmessageboard.com/general/210062-how-much-would-you-sell-your-hand-for.html#post4867803 How much would you sell your hand for? – US Message Board – Political Discussion Forum

    [...] [...]

  • james pog

    This one, was the best comment out of all of them, by far!

  • Al Koholic

    Hey Bill! Give me a hand over here will you. Looks like your hands are full, will you lend me a hand? You gotta hand it to them. Let’s put our hands together for this caper. That insurance money will sure come in handy. Who thinks this is newsworthy? Let me see your hands! Good job Gerald, let’s shake hands, er, other hand.

  • http://www.zonabacaan.com/2012/02/insurance-fraud-of-a-different-kind/ Insurance Fraud of a Different Kind | Zonabacaan

    [...] FIQIH, HADITS, SEJARAH category and has 0 Comments so far. A Cayce man has been charged with insurance fraud after another man’s hand was chopped [...]

  • http://worldduh.com/2012/02/25/need-money-how-about-chopping-off-your-friends-hand-and-filing-an-insurance-claim/ Need money? How about chopping off your friends hand and filing an insurance claim? « Bizarre World News

    [...] more: http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2012/02/24/man-charged-with-chopping-off-friends-hand-for-insurance-mo… Share this:FacebookMoreTwitterEmailPrintLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]

  • Ya Ya

    George Costanza would say that gentleman no longer has hand.

  • Ya Ya

    Don’t forget the people that break their legs (via doctor) to add six inches in height!

  • gary

    I wonder if someone had a hand in somebody drawing the shortest straw

  • gary

    Can he do shorthand if he is short a hand ?

  • Jerry

    I thought it was a muslim caught stealing

  • BlownfuelCoupe

    Kinda like having Barry for a Friend.

  • Mike V.

    I’d give my right hand to be ambidextrous!

  • BlownfuelCoupe

    Now hold still…..This won’t hurt a bit, Rust is good, don’t worry.

    You can still hold a wad of cash in your other hand. Trust me.

    Oh, by the way, who was your favorite Teacher?

  • HARDHAT9

    Everyone deserves a hand of applause! These have GOT to be the best comments i have ever read in response to a news story. GOOD GOING!

  • SailorV

    Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

  • K. Bernshire

    Here’s a real interesting article about how our children are being dumbed down. I especially liked the pictures from the textbooks from the 70′s vs today.

    http://coryreport.com/2012/02/13/education-the-great-equalizer/

  • simon

    a black man needing more crack

  • truther

    i dont see how its fraud unless it DIDN’T happen.

  • ChopOffThis

    Just another made up story after the coup d’etat and cover up.

    The next election is shaping up to be as big of a sham as the last. Do you know why Sarah Palin’s bus tour was really canceled? Do you know why she stayed 30 miles away from the second debate and chose the death of Steve Jobs to announce that she’s not running? Know what leaked out? Sarah Palin and Cain aren’t in the race for the same reason, the truth leaked out.
    http://PalinsDirtyLittleSecret.blogspot.com

  • greg

    They must have had the good Hands Policy.

  • A.L.

    Hey scarf, i will give you a hand on that comment.looks like you have every thing in hand!!

  • TangentToWhat

    When he noticed Bubba had 2 aces up, he threw in his hand.

  • JCDOG

    Ok, you guys need to knock it off. This is getting out of hand….

  • New York Nick

    Kind of hard to ‘give himself a hand’ when he let his dumb redneck buddy saw off one of them….

  • dave_ct

    Is this the same guy that’s always putting his foot in his mouth?

  • .nancy

    Read a book called A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY..same premise

  • Harry

    If my friends asked to cut off my hand for insurance money, I’d have given them the finger.

  • ditchdigger2

    Who GAS.

  • Chin

    Obama wanted to give us a hand-up, not a hand-down. Guess it didn’t work out very well, did it?

  • IM Simpleton

    Their mistake was trying to defraud an insurance company. Should have just applied for Social Security Disability. Then they wouldn’t have even had to cut off the hand, just claim carpal tunnel or depression.

  • ImaHippyBurning

    @ Mongo. That was special! I spit my cornflakes all over the screen! LOL

  • ‘Nother-Son-’O-Ursus

    Re: “I’m washing my hands of this whole affair…”
    I was reminded of Pontius – Pilate, hand’s, a-wash…
    Had a chat w/ Jesus the other day…
    He’s usually very physically expressive, (‘arms and hands flailing’; you know what I mean?), but NOT this time…like the sign, (‘INRI’), says, I’m Nailed Right In!”
    BTW: Today’s secret word is: “Smolensk”; Say the secret word 3,000 times at the men’s room, 2nd. Urinal on the left and receive a lotto-ticket worth almost as much as the dollar you paid for it!

  • lefty

    You gotta HAND it to them for being a CUT above the average insurance scammer. High five guys! Oh wait…

  • labar

    It’s hard to do five finger discounts without a hand off first. And he was tired of being a handyman.

  • MadMathMan

    It’s more like 99.18%. 99.9% means one misspelling in 1000 words.

  • http://ny9solyndra.wordpress.com NY9Solyndra

    Sure, do you want me to give you one?

  • hicks

    his hand-offs put Tom Brady to shame.

  • http://ny9solyndra.wordpress.com NY9Solyndra

    Are you this serious about all of the horrors that occur in life?

  • Databyter

    Well, times are hard and it may be that these guys had no business opportinities.
    Of course the one guy was Handy, with a pole saw.

  • hicks

    Remember Allstates motto.. Your in good hands?

  • Tommy

    Gotta hand it to em.

  • mary

    1234

  • mary

    c

  • mary

    my roomate’s step-sister brought home $15363 the prior month. she is making income on the computer and got a $394900 condo. All she did was get lucky and set to work the clues made clear on this website..MakeCash2.com

  • Looking for logic

    But abortion is legal…………

  • KenyanClown
  • KenyanClown

    Good story——————-http://sfist.com/2012/02/24/large_naked_woman_stomps_on_car_in.php

  • JeddMcHead

    This ought to make you think twice the next time someone at work asks you to “lend a hand”.

  • George

    Off hand, I’d say it was pretty cleaver of them to dream up this scheme

    JHB

  • http://ladyblu.posterous.com/man-charged-with-chopping-off-friends-hand-fo Man Charged With Chopping Off Friends Hand For Insurance Money – ladyblu’s posterous

    [...] Thirty-four-year-old Gerald B. Hardin faces six charges, including mail fraud for a 2008 incident in Sumter County where a mans had was cut off with a pole saw.Source:http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2012/02/24/man-charged-with-chopping-off-friends-hand-for-insurance-mo… [...]

  • http://healthblog.ncpa.org/headlines-i-wish-i-hadnt-seen-23/ Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen | John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org

    [...] Man Charged With Chopping Off Friend’s Hand For Insurance Money. [...]

  • Billa

    Thanks for the gr8 tricks. Its wnorikg on my blog but not perfectly. I got the reply button in every comments but whenever I click on it a window is appearing showing this error message…….We’re sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:Describe what you were doing when you got this error.Provide the following error code and additional information.bX-vhok77………Have any one faced this problem? Can u help me Paul to get out of this?

  • Deyvid

    FYI … for the first comment only post it looks like a work-around is to post the code after the “” tag. I have it snhwiog up now for all but deleted comments. I don’t know why it wasn’t working on the “” … maybe that isn’t included in all posts or comments.Something else to try would be to put it after the “” and see if it shows up … I don’t feel like messing with it since it appear to be working now.

  • Pat

    Ofcource I ticked the epxnad widgets template. That’s what is so confusing to me. As I explained before it simply does not have the code. What I did find was, data:comment.authorAvatarImage | data:comment.author|timestamp|body and but not the line of code given. So what should I do? Is it a error in the template? Should I get a new one or can I fix it?Your help and expertise is gladly and gratefully asked and accepted.

  • Ricardo

    krystlerox1 on October 24, 2011 This ralely does work.. It’s called freebie trading.. I’m a freebie trainer.. Send me a message if you have any questions about it

  • Jerderic

    djmaster69 on October 24, 2011 I just got my iPad 2 and I am tolalty blown away. My MacBook pro is sitting in the corner and I haven not missed a beat Glad I haven not bought it and got it For FREE, my cousin received his ipad 2 for free too lol. The web address, if I remember correctly, was: freeipad2giveaways.info

  • http://www.mopo.ca/2012/03/man-charged-with-chopping-off-friends-hand-for-insurance-money/ Man Charged With Chopping Off Friend’s Hand For Insurance Money – MoPo | Geek News

    [...] Read more… [...]

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