Your humble blogger is always a sucker for a love story.  So, when I heard of Melinda O’Connor and her boyfriend, David Muro, pleading no contest to charges of workers’ compensation fraud, I couldn’t help but post on the topic.

Ms. O’Connor worked as a teacher’s aide for special needs children, but then decided she had her own special needs: namely money without work.  She claimed to have sprained her ankle back in April of 2009 and was since out of work.

She received medical treatment, but it didn’t seem to improve her condition any (you know, like when you aren’t thirsty, and you drink water, and you’re not any less thirsty because you weren’t thirsty to begin with?)

Surveillance video was obtained showing, among other things, Ms. O’Connor going about her every day business with no apparent signs of injury, and then using a wheelchair and carrying a cane to attend medical appointments.

Her boyfriend, Mr. Muro, helped her by pushing the wheelchair.

Just to re-cap: after a sprained ankle in April of 2009, we are seeing the conclusion of the fraud case five years later.

Congratulations are due to the law enforcement folks who got this done, of course.  But something needs to change strategy-wise if every prosecution takes this long and costs this much.

If you are going to commit insurance fraud, take some friendly advice from your humble blogger: leave the significant others out of it so you have someone to bail you out of jail.