# Arson in NY and NJ in the 1970s & 80s

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arson-in-ny-and-nj-in-the-1970s-80s/1014676>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 22, 2025, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arson-in-ny-and-nj-in-the-1970s-80s/1014676 "2025-02-22T20:01:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arson-in-ny-and-nj-in-the-1970s-80s/1014676/21 "2025-02-24T20:55:03Z")

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Also, and probably covered in some of the links:

When I read about this (and now I can’t find something online to back it up), there was a process of sham sales to get the prices up before burning the buildings. Since they were at that point a depreciating asset, they wanted to get out what they had into them

I believe part of how they dealt with the problem was by changing how the buildings were valued for the insurance payout.

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