North Carolina roofer charged after 'bait house' sting catches staged shingle damage
A Carolina Trophy Roofs employee faces three felony charges after state investigators and two insurers said he creased shingles on a 'bait house' in Washington, N.C., and reported it as wind damage to collect insurance money and a commission.
Criminal investigators from the state Department of Insurance ran the operation with North Carolina Farm Bureau and the coastal wind pool, the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association. A 34-year-old Vanceboro man faces three felony counts: insurance fraud, damage to residential property, and attempting to obtain property by false pretense. He is due in court in Beaufort County on Dec. 17 and is free on a $5,000 bond, Insurance Journal reported. He has not been convicted.
Investigators say that on Aug. 18 he damaged the roof on purpose and told both insurers it was weather damage, aiming to collect a payout plus a commission for selling a new roof. The arrest warrant says the roof was in good shape until 20 shingles were lifted, bent and creased, with their seals broken. Farm Bureau held the main policy on the house, and the wind pool covered wind and hail.
Patrick Brownstone, general manager of Carolina Trophy Roofs, told Insurance Journal the employee had been with the company five weeks, was fired once the firm learned of the charges and was never told to damage roofs. The company offered to pay for the repairs.
This is the second roof sting Farm Bureau has run with the department. In the first, set up in Wake County in late 2025, investigators filmed roofers damaging shingles. In September two brothers were ordered to pay restitution, and one was barred from roofing during two years of probation. A department spokesman told Insurance Journal more operations are planned.
Why it matters: The state and insurers are planting houses to test roof crews and say more stings are coming. If you pay reps a commission on replacements, require date-stamped photos of every damage claim and make clear that creating damage gets someone fired.
Sources
- Roofer, Insurance Producer Charged in Separate Fraud Cases in the CarolinasInsurance Journal, Oct 20
- N.C. Farm Bureau and NCIUA Partner with Department of Insurance in Undercover Sting Operation That Leads to Insurance Fraud ArrestPR Newswire, Oct 26
- Bait house sting leads to roof fraud arrest in North CarolinaInsurance Business, Oct 26