NCJ Number
90683
Journal
Fire and Arson Investigator Volume: 33 Issue: 4 Dated: (June 1983) Pages: 15-22
Date Published
1983
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article supplies information helpful in the identification of the television model destroyed in a fire, so as to determine whether the insured has overstated the value of the set in an insurance claim.
Abstract
Television sets are often used to inflate the value of the contents of a house destroyed by fire. Typically, the set will be described by the insured as newer, larger, and more sophisticated than it actually was. In cases of arson for profit, older television sets may be substituted for the new TV specified in the claim. The following remains will always be present if there was a television in the house: metal chassis, tuners, speaker baskets, transformers, picture tube deflection and degaussing coils, and picture tube glass; however, only the picture tube components and tuners are used exclusively in televisions. The other components may be parts of stereo receivers or other electronic devices. Most stereos do have some type of tuner, but these are usually distinguishable from television tuners. Other components, present on only some televisions, are also indestructible or nearly so. These include ceramic or bakelite vacuum tube sockets, transistors, condensors or capacitors, shadow masks, picture tube purity shield and vacuum tube shields, control knob posts, and the picture tube frame. The following items should be noted to help determine the age and type of set: the number of tuners, whether the picture tube is round or rectangular, whether the set is black-and-white or color, and whether the set used solid state or vacuum tube electronics. Characteristics of different types of sets are listed in a table, and photographs of the different indestructible, charred parts of television sets are provided.