Woman charged with insurance fraud after pawning ring and claiming it was lost

A Snohomish County Woman has been charged for claiming that she'd lost a diamond ring that she had actually pawned.

The Attorney General's Office has chaged Laura Anne Dunn with attempted first-degree theft and insurance fraud. Arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 23 in Snohomish County Superior Court.

In January, Dunn told her insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance, that she'd lost her ring during a New Year's Eve stay at a casino. The ring was valued at more than $9,000.

Investigators for Liberty Mutual checked with the casino's security staff, which had no record of Dunn reporting her ring missing. They asked Dunn to provide a number of records, including all photographs taken during her stay at the casino.

The investigators also checked pawnshop records. They discovered that Dunn had actually pawned the ring back in September 2011. In fact, the ring was still at the pawnshop until she picked it up in mid-March 2012.

Two weeks after she filed the claim, Dunn sent a note to Liberty Mutual.

"I have been extremely lucky," she wrote, saying that she'd found the ring snagged in a glove. "...Thanks for your time and effort on my behalf."

The following day, the insurer's investigators visited a local pawnshop, where they found and photographed the ring that Dunn had reported missing. They closed the claim and reported the case to Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler's Special Investigations Unit, which specializes in insurance fraud cases.

Update: On Dec. 19, 2012, Dunn pleaded guilty to attempted first degree theft. She was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and $600 in costs.