(The Albuquerque Tribune published the following story by Aubrey Hovey on its website on August 2.)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lue Ann Waterman claimed she had a trainload of bad luck.
The Albuquerque woman told the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway that its trains have hit more than 100 of her cows, bulls and horses during the past two years.
Waterman has cashed 43 claim checks from the railway totaling more than $144,000, according to a Metropolitan Court criminal complaint.
Today, she remains in the Metropolitan Detention Center because police charge there are two crucial things she doesn’t own: a ranch and livestock.
BNSF police began investigating the case in late July after a data entry clerk noticed that claims made by a certain Lou Ann Turnquist and a Louann Lodwick were repetitive, Timothy Coan, a BNSF police special agent, said Friday.
It didn’t take much work to figure out that those names had been used before by Waterman, 43, and that she was the wife of Scott Waterman, the BNSF claims representative who wrote the checks, Coan said.
“That’s what we call a definite clue,” he said. “When you see the same name come up, it sends flags.”
Lue Ann Waterman has filed 86 claims at BNSF dating back to December 2001 for the deaths of livestock including calves, quarter horses and Black Angus bulls, according to the criminal complaint.
Scott Waterman, also 43, has since been fired from BNSF and is also in jail, the complaint states.
“The claim agent actually wrote the claims to his wife, claiming all of those livestock,” Coan said.
Locations of the so-called train accidents included Encino, Torrance County, Gallup, McKinley County and San Felipe Pueblo, but the Watermans live in Albuquerque, according to the complaint.
Coan said the Watermans do not own livestock or a ranch.
When first questioned by BNSF investigators, Scott Waterman explained that the woman filing the claims was American Indian and that he was trained by his employers “to put little effort into verifying claims made by Native Americans because this could cause a disruption of service through reservations,” the complaint states.
“That was part of his excuse. I don’t think that’s true,” Coan said. “And he wasn’t trained like that. He was reaching.”
At first, investigators knew of no connection between the two Watermans.
A private investigator hired by BNSF found that Lue Ann Waterman’s maiden name was Lue Ann Lodwick, and a previous name used by her was Lue Ann Turnquist, according to the complaint.
Records of Lue Ann Waterman’s employment with the New Mexico Corrections Department also confirmed that Scott Waterman was her husband, the complaint said.
Attempts to reach Corrections for information on Waterman’s job were unsuccessful Friday.
The Watermans were arrested Thursday. Each is being held in Metropolitan Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bond.
Each is charged with conspiracy and 43 counts of embezzlement, according to the complaint.