Originally Posted by kane

Growing up I lived next door to this couple who had a young son. The husband was on disability. For years he was a carpenter and hurt his back on the job (or so he claims). He got a pretty nice insurance settlement and was on disability. Between the two they lived a very average lower middle class life in their 2 bedroom house.

Then his teenage daughter came to live with them so he decided to add a new room onto the house. Over three months one summer he built the entire thing himself. What he didn't know is that the insurance company had him under investigation. They got video of him building this thing, carrying stuff, living what appeared to a normal pain-free life then took him to court. They won and he was hit with a judgement to pay back the entire settlement plus all the disability he had drawn.

They moved right after the case ended so years went by and I never found out if he appealed or what. Then about five years ago I ran into his older son (that didn't live with him) and he told me his dad appealed and lost the appeal. He sold the house and instead of using the money he got from the house to maybe negotiate some kind of settlement offer he used it to buy a bunch of pot plants and the stuff to start a grow operation. His plan was to grow and sell enough weed to pay off his judgement. Of course he got caught and ended up getting 10 years in jail. All because he was a dumbass and decided to build an addition onto his house.