Report: Sleep Number Bed Payoff for Pair Arrested in Insurance Fraud Probe

A father and son from Durham were arrested last week in an investigation into insurance fraud after they agreed to set fire to an East Hampton woman’s SUV in return for an $899 bed, according to an affidavit obtained by the Middletown Press.

Robert Grem, 47, and Christopher Grem, 24, were at 93 Camera Road on March 19. Both men are due in court Tuesday to face multiple charges, including accessory to insurance fraud and first-degree criminal mischief.

The affidavit details the pair’s involvement with 27-year-old Ewa Rybitwa of 121 West High St., East Hampton, who was arrested on March 15 after police say she attempted to get rid of her 2006 Ford Explorer so she could collect the insurance money for it.

According to the affidavit, in December 2011, Robert Grem and Rybitwa visited a CarMax location where Rybitwa was offered $12,000 to trade-in her SUV. After telling her “friend” that she still owed $21,600 on the vehicle, Grem suggested that she let him steal the vehicle so she could “start over,” the affidavit says.

On Jan. 13, investigators say Grem arranged to pick up the vehicle. The next day, according to the affidavit, he drove the SUV to New Haven where he’d offered another man $500 to “light the vehicle on fire and push it into the water to get rid of it.” On Jan. 15, Rybitwa reported the vehicle stolen, according to East Hampton Police.

Ten days later, on Jan. 25, police were notified that Rybitwa’s vehicle had been recovered in New Haven and that police had arrested 49-year-old Anthony Stevenson, a West Haven man with an extensive criminal history, on numerous charges including first degree larceny.

When questioned by investigators, Stevenson admitted that he had been hired to “burn the vehicle for insurance purposes” but said he decided to keep the vehicle because he did not want to be involved in an arson charge and was upset that he’d only been paid $350, the affidavit says.

Stevenson described the man who hired him only as “Bobby” but told investigators where they could find him. He directed police to exit 12 on Interstate 91, and instructed them to “follow the back roads up to Durham. Take the first right after the Durham Town Line sign. Follow that road all the way to the dead end and “Bobby’s” house is at the end of the road,” the affidavit says.

On Feb. 13, East Hampton Police and Connecticut State Police executed a search warrant at 93 Camera Road in Durham.  According to the affidavit, Robert Grem was unwilling to provide investigators any details, saying “I can’t roll like that bro. I don’t flip.”

Christopher Grem, police say, was more cooperative, admitting that the pair stripped the SUV of parts before it was taken to New Haven. The younger Grem told investigators Rybitwa paid about $899 for a Sleep Number Bed as payment for getting rid of the vehicle.

According to the affidavit, Rybitwa’s insurance company is responsible for paying the lien-holder $17,974 despite the fraudulent claim. Rybitwa was charged with insurance fraud, second-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny, falsely reporting the theft of a car and accessory to commit first-degree criminal mischief.

Her boyfriend, 24-year-old Kyle Buracchi of East Hampton, was also charged with accessory to insurance fraud and accessory to second degree larceny.