Comet Cleaner & Super Sleuth

Today has been an interesting day. Work aside, that is. Well, work was interesting, too, but that's not very exciting to write about.

Anyway, my sister called to tell me her cat ingested Comet Cleaner today. You know, the abrasive, powdery, old school cleaner. She rushed him to the vet, and the stuff has burned his esophogus, the back of his mouth, and he's been wheezing. The vet took chest xrays, put him on a ventilator, and now he's at the 24 hour overnight clinic while his little 6lb. body tries to digest the stuff that is in his system. Too bad you can't force-feed cats grass, which is what they seem to eat when they need to puke a hairball... We are keeping our fingers crossed that he will make it through the night & get to come home tomorrow. This is the same kitten that I found a year ago at the Rogue Christmas party.

Then late this afternoon, while the cat stuff was all going down, I finally spoke LIVE to my insurance agent. So far, all we've been doing is exchanging voicemails and emails. I had found the hit & run culprit's phone number by calling information & my insurance agent called yesterday (so did I, but I only got an answering machine). He wasn't at home, but his mother answered the phone and apparently just had brain surgery (!). She was having a hard time communicating with the agent. Needless to say, the man never returned the call.

So, when I spoke to my agent today I simply stated, "why can't we just find out his insurance company?!" Suddenly, it was a fast-paced super sleuth endeavor. My agent looked up the VIN of the truck who hit me, and then he started looking through all the integrated systems that insurance companies have access to...and I'll tell ya, it's pretty scary how much information is out there on each of us for the ready. Seems the guy has been in numerous car accidents, but he's never reported being the driver - it's either the neighbor or a family member or a friend or it's been stolen. He's filed all of these accidents under different insurance companies. He must think the insurance companies won't ever find out...sucker!

I wondered aloud how old this guy is and I was told he's 49. I speculated that perhaps his mom was in the car & had a brain aneurysm or something. But then I'm thinking, this guy has a habit of either having horribly bad luck or lying profusely.

Then I asked, "I wonder if the other car owner who was hit has had any better luck finding anything out?" A quick look in another system indicated that the assigned agent for that driver was a former coworker of my agent. So, now they are comparing notes and tracking this dude down.

Overall, it was pretty fun strategizing with my insurance agent & hunting down these details. But it was also very eye-opening & alarming to know what is out there.

I would so love to be a spy...