Man repays insurance money with 4 tons of coins

A southern Illinois businessman has paid off part of a court-ordered legal settlement with nearly four tons of quarters packed into dozens of bags.

Roger Herrin, of Harrisburg, was ordered by an appellate court to repay $500,000 in insurance money related to a 2001 car accident in which his teenage son died.

The reimbursement followed years of legal disputes about how the insurance money was apportioned to the crash victims.

So in protest, Herrin repaid nearly a third of the money – $150,000 – with 50-pound bags of quarters he had trucked in by the Federal Reserve bank in St. Louis. The coins were delivered Wednesday to two Marion law firms that represented the other victims.

According to affiliate WSIL-TV, Herrin’s son, Michael, died in a car accident in 2001. The 15-year-old was in a car with three other people when a truck failed to stop at an intersection. Michael was killed, while the other passengers were injured.

Since then, the families have been in a legal battle over how the insurance money should be distributed.

Herrin says he paid in quarters because paying in pennies wasn’t feasible.