Joseph "Joey" Bozik, a former Army sergeant, lost his legs and his right arm in 2004 after his Humvee hit an anti-tank mine in Iraq. But when it comes to enemies, Bozik discovered recently, there are few so cold-hearted as an insurance company.
Bozik, who received a home from other vets upon returning to North Carolina in 2008, engaged the foe in August after an 18-wheeler sideswiped his specially equipped van at a Fuquay-Varina stoplight. Bozik, his wife, Jayme, and their infant were in the van but were not injured.
The van needed extensive repairs.
It took three months to get clearance from the trucking company's insurance outfit, GAB Robins, to move forward. That was OK. The van was drivable, and if there's anything Bozik has learned during the last five or six years, it's patience.
It was when the vehicle was finally scheduled for repairs that Bozik began to feel as though he was being jerked around. All over an extra five or 10 bucks a day for a handicapped accessible rental van.
After business hours the night before his own dented vehicle was due in the shop, Bozik reminded the insurance adjuster in Birmingham, Ala., that he needed a van that would accommodate his wheelchair.
Bozik even suggested a rental place for the adjuster, Carson Lester, to call.
On the morning they were dropping off their van, though, Lester sent the Boziks a message saying he hadn't been able to locate a rental to replace it. He also warned the Boziks that if mechanics need to order parts for their van, the insurance company wouldn't pay for a rental in the interim.
The Boziks ended up having to pick up their damaged van from the repair shop to wait for parts. But out of curiosity they also called the van rental place - and learned that, contrary to Lester's note, there was a handicapped-accessible van available immediately. The problem was it cost $95 to $100 a day to rent, and Lester's message said the insurance company wanted to hold payments to $90 a day. Yep, that's why the insurance company was quibbling with a triple amputee. Penny-pinching a Purple Heart.
Long story short: Bozik dropped off his van for repairs Monday. He's paying for the van rental out of his own pocket and plans to seek reimbursement afterward.
But at this point, it's not the money that rankles.
"Look, I don't play the veteran card," he said. "I don't play the cripple card. But this is the first time since I became an amputee that I really feel like I'm being treated differently because I'm in a wheelchair."
At one point in the flurry of e-mails and phone calls, Jayme Bozik found it so hard to understand the resistance and red tape that she sent the insurance adjuster a note appealing to his humanity, mentioning that her husband had lost his limbs in service to his country in Iraq.
Lester wrote back: "Thank your husband for his service to this country, and I'll accept your gratitude for mine as well (although I ask for none)." Lester told me in a later e-mail that he served in the Air Force.
Lester told me neither he nor anyone from GAB Robins or AAA Cooper Transportation, which owns the 18-wheeler, could speak to me since Bozik had at one point threatened to hire a lawyer.
But he did send me an e-mail: "Thank you for your efforts to assist one of our brave veterans...Please be assured that GAB Robins and AAA Cooper Transportation are handling this matter, as we do every matter, 'by the book' adhering to legal mandates and precedents."
By the book, down to the last dollar on a handicapped accessible van. Just the sort of thank you every veteran deserves.
