A demolition derby pyramid scheme?
LYONS, N.Y. — (AP) Authorities said an upstate New York man angry with his wife used a backhoe to demolish more than two dozen demolition derby cars. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said 29-year-old Michael Fagner caused about $40,000 damage to 30 cars parked at a business in Savannah, 30 miles west of Syracuse.
Police said he used the backhoe’s bucket to crush most of the derby-ready cars and flip over one vehicle Friday afternoon. Deputies said the backhoe belonged to the business.
Authorities say Fagner believed someone at the business was having an affair with his wife.
Fagner was charged felony criminal mischief and later released on $5,000 bail. Fagner’s phone number wasn’t listed. Prosecutors didn’t know if he had a lawyer.
Rocky wonders exactly what happens when a “demolition derby” car is demolished before the derby? Will anyone notice the difference? How does one calculate the damage amount at $40,000? Does one carry collision insurance on demolition derby cars? If the perp had stacked the cars vertically, would that have been a “pyramid scheme?” And, if bail is set at $5,000 on a $40,000 loss, then Madoff’s bail should have been $6.25 million instead of the original $10 million.
One Honest Man 
Very funny story (and commentary) which addresses the serious issue of how value is assigned. In a previous story I told about the killing of several cats in a private cat shelter in Iowa, the perps were convicted of breaking and entering, but the cats, who were all rescued were deemed to have “no value”. (And animals are considered property.) Perhaps that might have been different had they been show cats, cost a lot to begin with, and had future earnings power. That’s how we seem to assign value to human life and and serious incidents of maiming…lost future earning power is part of the mix. So in this case, the cars themselves may not have had inherent value(whatever that is), but they had future earning power (ticket sales).