Friends cut off man’s hand to claim $671k from insurance

​In a crime that seems like it was cribbed from a Coen brothers movie (it wasn't -- this is independent thinking at its finest), three South Carolina men banded together to defraud insurance companies. Two of them were luckier than the third: The duo "used a pole saw to cut off the hand of [the] third man in the alleged scheme," according to WLWT. (Also: "A pole saw is a small chain saw that is attached to the end of a pole, and is used to trim tree branches.") They scored an incredible $671,000 thanks to a homeowner's insurance policy, plus three accidental death and dismemberment policies. One of the two alleged hand-cutters, Gerald B. Hardin, has been indicted on multiple, fraud-related charges and could spend up to 20 years in prison; the other two men were not named in the indictment.

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