A US man was angry with a court order that he return more than USD 5,00,000 in insurance money related to a 2001 accident that killed his teenage son, so he decided to pay it back in coins.
Four tons of coins.
The load of change was delivered yesterday on a truck to two law firms that represented other victims of the wreck, who survived.
"I just wanted to draw attention to what went on here," the 76-year-old Roger Herrin said. "There was no satisfaction from doing that. The loss of a child is the loss of a child, and all the money doesn't replace that."
The court told Herrin to pay the money to resolve a years-long legal fight among the crash's survivors over how USD 8,00,000 in insurance proceeds were divided.
His 15-year-old son was killed in June 2001. He was a passenger in a vehicle that was broadsided by a truck that went through a stop sign. Three other occupants of the Jeep were injured.
The survivors appealed how the money was divided.
Mark Prince, an attorney for the Jeep's driver and her son, who was also a passenger, declined to discuss the case's merits today, calling that "counterproductive."
Prince called Herrin's unannounced delivery "surprising", and a burglary risk for his law firm, given the media attention.
"We had a lot of cash suddenly laying around, it was publicised," Prince said. "We don't have safes or vaults, and we lock our front door. Advance notice would have been nice.
