There was the one about "...losing control of the car as the driver swerved to hit his mother-in-law" and other assorted goodies that fall into the category of "Are-these-people-for-real?" insurance claims.

Here's one: Churchill Home Insurance has had a claim for "...a roast chicken burning a hole in a kitchen carpet." After working in the hospitality industry for nearly a decade, I thought I'd seen most bizarre acts of cooking ingenuity. However, this one takes the cake (pardon the pun!).

How is that you make a chicken roast on the carpet? Do you rub it's legs together like an Indian trying to get a spark from two bits of wood? Is there some electro-magnetic energy source that allows one to bake a whole chook on the shag pile?

I've often wondered why people put carpet in the kitchen in the first place. Mind you, it seems quite reasonable a proposition if you can cook off it - doesn't it? You just need to beware that you don't leave the chicken on the carpet for too long.