Mrs. Griz and I learned, kind of the hard way, about the importance of documenting items one owns before the day comes when an insurance claim needs to be filed. Just purchasing insurance won't help much if you can't document and prove ownership of items before they are stolen or lost in a fire or other catastrophe.
Our lesson came on the last day of a Christmas vacation trip. We had visited with most of our kids and grandkids, as well as with other family members and friends, and decided to drive back as far as Wichita, Kan., so we could make it early enough to attend church on New Year's Eve. We stopped at a nice motel late Sunday night and got a good night's sleep - probably better than all the other nights on our trip when we slept on separate couches at a daughter's home.
We awoke Monday morning to snow and hurried to get underway before roads got bad. However, when I carried suitcases back out to the car, I noticed one window was not snow covered like the rest. My fears were realized when I got up close. The glass had been broken out of a rear passenger window and a number of items had been grabbed out of the back seat - my coat and hat, some Christmas gifts for grandkids, my wife's laptop computer which was hidden on the floor and a fewother items, including our Christmas cookies.
I was happy to find that the thieves hadn’t popped open the trunk, or their heist would have been more profitable. I assume they were in a hurry to make their getaway.
We called police but they wouldn't even come out unless the thief or thieves left some burglary tools or other identifying evidence behind. They hadn't. Police took our report over the telephone.
Safelite Auto Glass provided impressive service, vacuuming the glass out of the car and covering the window with plastic for our return trip, all at no charge to us. While we were driving home, Safelite contacted our auto insurance company and arranged the replacement of the broken window at Mrs. Griz' workplace, which they did immediately after the holiday.
But filing an insurance claim on the items stolen wasn't so easy. When I called to check on coverage for items stolen, I learned items not permanently attached to the car were not covered under our auto policy. They were under our renter's policy, but we needed documentation to prove we actually owned the items which we reported stolen to the police.
I can understand the need of the insurance company to have some sort of proof because of all the fraudulent claims filedeach year, but the need for documentation, whether it be purchase receipts or photos of the items, was something I had never thought about before. I had just assumed a police report was sufficient.
I also learned our insurance company would not pay for replacement of stolen items unless and until we first replaced them and provided receipts showing the items purchased and our actual costs.
Anyway, the experience made us aware of our need to somehow document the items we own so that, should they be stolen or destroyed, we could prove we owned them for an insurance claim and replacement.
Keeping purchase receipts on any more expensive items is a good idea, but if receipts have been lost or destroyed, photographs of the items in your home, along with serial numbers, may prove invaluable should there be a need for an insurance claim.
Having photos of items with you or a family member may be even more convincing.
And where do you keep this documentation? Some people keep it in a bank safety-deposit box, but having multiple copies and keeping one with a friend or family member may also work.
Some forms of secure online storage may also be a good option. I say secure, because a person wouldn't want to give thieves a listing of what you have and where you keep it.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer and can be reached by email at rmoll@ nwaonline.com.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 01/16/2013