I answered the phone one day to the sound of a woman shrieking, "A bee flew in the car! A bee flew in the car!" over and over. My first thought was: Wrong number? Then I recognized her voice, it was a customer I’ve known for years. I tried to calm her down, thinking she accidentally dialed me or called by mistake. Bees don’t really seem like an insurance matter. Then she screamed, "THE CAR IS SINKING!" That got my attention.

She'd driven to a nearby lake to pick up her husband and his boat after a day of fishing. As she backed her car onto the boat ramp, a bee flew through the passenger side window. She panicked, and jumped out of driver-side door, completely forgetting to put the car in park. Her car, which was on the boat ramp incline, slowly rolled into the lake. I could hear her poor husband yelling in the background as the car went underwater.

The lake is very shallow, and for days afterward, the roof was visible just a few feet below the surface until the car was towed away.

I've been a Farmers agent in my small, rural community for 30 years, and I've seen and heard a lot of things — collisions with deer, drivers thinking standing water isn't too deep to drive through — but the bee story was a new one on me. This was also the first time I’ve been on the phone while an incident was happening. (I can't resist. It was... un-bee-lievable.)

THE RESOLUTION: The bee was fine. The car was totaled. (No word on whether her husband caught any fish.) After the customer paid the deductible, Farmers covered the loss through her personal auto insurance policy.

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Written by

Sue Middlebusher, a Farmers agent in Nowata, Oklahoma.

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