Robbery, Simple Theft and Qualified Theft, do you know the difference?
Hello!
Here we are at another #MondayBlog.
Today's subject is very interesting. And today we are going to put an end to the doubts that permeate these terms when an accident occurs.
A good way to learn something is through good examples. With that in mind, let's share a true story of how one person learned the difference between being robbed and being stolen, at an unusual moment. Obviously all names will be changed.
THE SITUATION
One fine day, Camila was returning by bus from school. As she got off the bus she noticed that her backpack seemed to be swaying and upon checking it she was shocked to find that her pocket was open and that her cell phone was not there.
Arriving home in a state of panic, she called her father. As soon as he answered she exclaimed “Dad, they stole my cell phone!!”. "What do you mean? Are you okay? What exactly happened?” asked her father.
Camila then explained everything that happened with great indignation and shock. So her father replied “Oh yeah, you weren't robbed Camila, someone stole it from you. Simple theft on top of it all.”
Camila didn't understand anything and protested! "What? Of course I was robbed! They took my cell phone!!”
Her father calmly replied “No daughter, you would have been robbed if the thief had confronted you, threatened your life verbally or with a gun, and then taken your cell phone.”
“If your backpack was torn, you would have suffered a qualified theft, in which the bandit broke through a physical barrier to take your cell phone from you.”
“However, your backpack pocket was opened, you didn't feel this happen and there was no damage to your backpack, so what you suffered was a simple theft, and if I had to settle this claim, there would be no coverage. But don't worry, the important thing is that you're fine and Dad here is going to buy you a new cell phone later this week. Take care, daughter, I love you!”
A little background here, Camila's father was the director of an insurance company.
And this is the story of how Camila had her first confrontation with a claim adjuster and learned about the existence of simple theft.
Good thing for Camila that her father was the “regulator” and he presented her with a brand new cell phone in the same week. And Camila learned to walk with her backpack in front of her, from that day forward, and never again suffered theft.
It may seem like a silly situation, but it simply explains the differences between three terms that seem to mean the same thing.
Camila's indignation is well known and felt by many customers when their goods are taken and the insurer responds to their request with "Sir, unfortunately your policy does not cover simple theft and/or inexplicable disappearance", and you are on the other side multiplying your indignation and adding to it, confusion.
For this reason, we at Prospecto decided to bring this matter here on #MondayBlog in order to clarify everything!
THE SIMILARITIES
Robbery, qualified theft and simple theft are crimes. This is easy to understand, after all, someone took something from you, that belongs to you.
So when someone takes something from you, you have suffered an act of violence. However, the law will look at how this act was carried out in order to punish the criminal fairly.
And the insurer follows the current legislation to apply the indemnity, if the damage occurred is covered.
ROBBERY
After all, what is a robbery? Brazilian law defines roberry as the act of extracting a personal property from another person through the use of force, violence or threat to another person's life.
Robbery may or may not be associated with the use of firearms or bladed weapons. The criminal can cause physical harm without the presence of weapons and the manifestation of physical violence clearly characterizes the crime as a robbery.
As it is a violent criminal act, this crime is punished more harshly and the prison time is longer for the perpetrator.
In the event of a claim, the insurance company will ask for the police report, statements from witnesses and evidence that your property was taken with the use of violence.
QUALIFIED THEFT
In Camila's story, her father explained the principle of this type of crime. It is necessary that a physical barrier get broken in order to reach the good to be taken.
In other words, the door was broken down, the safe was broken, the car window was broken to take the production equipment.
Aggravated theft only exists if one can clearly prove an effort to take the good, in Camila's case if her backpack had been ripped open with a knife then there would be physical evidence of the crime.
SINGLE THEFT
The good was taken, but no one saw it, nor felt it, and only realized it was gone later.
There was no confrontation, no threat, no risk to life. It is not even possible to prove that the good was actually there.
For this reason most insurers do not cover simple theft and supplement with the term inexplicable disappearance.
What does that mean? Simply that, despite the principle of good faith, if you cannot prove that the crime happened, and simply prove the previous existence of the good is not worth it, simple theft is mostly a crime without justice, unless the criminal get caught in the act.
What did you think? Do you have any questions?
We believe that contextualizing and giving examples always works better than reread the general conditions for our clients.
We hope you enjoyed our theme for today and will come back next Monday.
We look forward to another #MondayBlog!
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See you next week, lovers!
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