Prosecutors say a Butte woman obtained insurance coverage for her camping trailer a few days after it had already burned in a fire during a hunting trip and was paid $8,000 for the loss.
They say 32-year-old Jenna Marie Faroni called her insurance agent the day after the fire and filed a false insurance application that didn’t disclose the camper was already scorched.
Investigators obtained photos and a video that another person took of the fire’s aftermath and posted to the social media and messaging platform Snapchat the same day the fire happened.
Faroni pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of criminal insurance fraud on Thursday and District Judge Kurt Krueger set the next hearing for Jan. 12. Each count carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence and fine up to $50,000.
According to prosecutors, Faroni and three others, including her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s father, headed out for a hunting trip near Malta on Nov. 15, 2018 with Faroni’s 2007 Jayco camping trailer in tow. According to records, she did not have active insurance on the trailer at the time.
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After arriving at the campsite, a fire broke out behind the refrigerator in the camper. The parties pulled their belongings from the camper while others doused the fire with water bottles.
The boyfriend’s father took videos and photos of the aftermath, prosecutors say, and posted them to Snapchat that day. They showed burned parts pulled from the camper and belongings and items strewn about on the grass outside the camper.
One video was posted with the words, “When the trailer catches fire, s*** starts flying.” Based on a warrant, Snapchat provided time-stamped logos on the photos and videos to investigators.
The boyfriend’s father also saved them to his “memories” on Snapchat and told a state investigator that Faroni acknowledged not having insurance on the camper at the time of the fire.
She called her Farmers Insurance agent in Butte the next day and said she was just leaving town for a hunting trip and asked that insurance coverage be added to her camper, prosecutors say.
The agent filled out an application and two days later, Faroni signed it and stated “no” where the form asked if the camper had any unrepaired damage. The coverage was effective Nov. 16 — a day after the fire.
Faroni told the insurance agent the fire happened on Nov. 17, knowing that was false, and also lied to Farmers during its investigation of the claim. The company ultimately paid her $8,000 declaring the camper a total loss.
Faroni is free pending further court proceedings.