Lesson here: Be careful with the evidence.
A Michigan insurance company is suing to find out more details about a $750,000 Ferrari F50 an FBI agent smashed up while it was being held as evidence, the Detroit News reports.
Motors Insurance filed a federal lawsuit this week in Detroit to get records under the Freedom of Information Act about the incident. The Justice Department has refused to release the information, the suit claims.
The lawsuit says the car was stolen from a dealership in Rosemont, Pa., in September 2003, and that Motors Insurance paid the claim, the News reported.
Five year later, law enforcement recovered the car in Kentucky.
The lawsuit claims the car was stored during an investigation and prosecution of a thief, the News reported.
At some point, while still in the hands of federal authorities, an FBI special agent took it for a ride, lost control and smashed it into a tree in Lexington, Ky., the News reported.
The insurance company then filed a claim against the FBI for $750,000. But last March, the feds rejected the claim on the grounds that the car was evidence being detained by the FBI. A second claim by the company was rejected in September, the New reported.
Then attempts by the insurance company to get documents from the feds relating to the car were unsuccessful, the News reported.
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller told the News: “Needless to say we need to see the suit and make a determination on how we’d respond in court.”
