‘Price Is Right’ Fraud Bust For Postal Worker’s Injury Scam

A Price is Right appearance exposed a fraud committed by former North Carolina postal worker Cathy Wrench Cashwell. On Monday, she pleaded guilty in federal court to the fraud charges that were first investigated as a result of a 2009 appearance on the game show.

According to local news source WRAL, the unlucky Price is Right fraudster originally filed a worker’s compensation claim in 2004, stating that she could no longer lift mail trays into trucks as a result of a shoulder injury received on the job.

Yet she appeared on the Price is Right in September 2009, where she spins the big wheel twice. On the second spin, the clearly raises both arms above her head to grip the handle.

If you’ve ever had a long-term injury, I think you know that there’s a huge difference between being able to do something once or twice and being able to do it repeatedly over the course of an hours-long work shift. However, federal investigators soon gathered a lot more evidence that Cathy Cashwell was committing an out-and-out fraud.

After the suspicious 2009 Price is Right appearance, the investigators went to work. As a result of their probe, prosecutors alleged that in 2010 and 2011 Cashwell repeatedly engaged in activities she couldn’t have performed if she was as badly disabled as she claimed.

In 2011, she was seen carrying heavy grocery bags and even furniture. In 2010, she reportedly went ziplining with her husband while on vacation. Ouch.

Yet when she renewed a claim for her shoulder injury in 2011, she again stated that she couldn’t lift, grasp, bend, squat, or carry out other heavy duties that would have been demanded by her former job as a postal worker.

Cathy Cashwell has had no comment to the media. She will be sentenced for the Price is Right revealed fraud in September.

[money photo by turtix via Shutterstock]