Rosalba M. Chiulli fell in a Goodwill parking lot and told the store's management that it was their fault. She claimed she slipped on a banana peel.
I've always thought that was just an old movie trope and didn't really happen in real life.
(Mostly because I tried several times as a child.)
According to The Middletown Press, video footage does indeed show Chiulli falling in the parking lot on the morning of August 8th; however, it didn't happen quite the way Chiulli said.
The video footage showed a strap from the bag she was carrying on the ground following the fall — ‘indicative of her potentially tripping over the bag strap' — the warrant says there was ‘no indication of a banana being present as later reported.'
Chiulli then changed her story to slipping on a broken lighter.
There was actually a broken lighter in the parking lot, but …
Based on a picture of the lighter Chiulli allegedly took at the scene and provided to her attorney, the warrant says police determined that ‘the lighter would have been closer to where the pickup truck was parked than where Chiulli would have stepped.'
It turns out that Chiulli has a history of falling at commercial properties and trying to get a payout.
In fact, the day before her alleged fall at Goodwill, a jury had ruled against her for another "accident" at Ocean State Job Lot (a discount store in Berlin, CT).
Rather than deal with all the costs of a fraudulent lawsuit, Goodwill's insurance company referred her to police.
Middletown police concluded that Chiulli ‘misrepresented the cause of the fall' and then attempted to ‘deceive and defraud Goodwill's insurance company.' With sufficient probable cause, police applied for and obtained a warrant to arrest Chiulli on insurance fraud.
She was arrested and held on a $1,000 bond.
I can't tell you how disappointed I am that there were no bananas involved in this woman's fall from grace.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
