Appalling article leads to apology

Declarations

“When I read that story I was appalled and, frankly, didn’t believe that it could possibly be accurate. I have since learned that the essential facts in the story are correct. What the investigators and Progressive people involved in that case did was wrong — period. I personally want to apologize to anyone who was affected by this incident.”

— Progressive President and CEO Glenn Renwick apologizing for the tactics of the company’s investigators, who posed as a couple, entered a private support group at Southside Christian Fellowship Church in hopes of catching two church members, Bill and Leandra Pitts, in a confession that might discredit the pair who had been involved in an ongoing lawsuit with Progressive over a traffic accident.

Fighting future claims

“It’s well worth it from an insurance standpoint, to keep these things standing. Fires are not totally uncommon here, but nobody thought we would be in as much danger as we ended up being in.”

— Jack Dies, owner of Sun Valley Insurance, which represents New York-based AIG in Idaho, explaining why his company believes its own fire prevention efforts are helpful in reducing losses. Sun Valley Insurance hired a fire truck to protect seven pricey homes in the central Idaho resort town of Ketchum, which have an estimated collective value of as much as $35 million.