Teacher sent photos of herself instead of vehicle in car insurance gaffe

A 25-year-old teacher in America was left red-faced when she applied for car insurance, only to get mixed up with what details were required, the BBC reports.

Alyssa Stringfellow, from Arkansas, was trying to add herself to her grandmother’s insurance.

The insurance company asked for a range of information, including her driver’s licence number, date of birth, and “a picture straight on and a picture taken from each side.”

But instead of sending pictures of the car, she submitted pictures of herself.

In a post on Facebook, she also told of how her grandmother texted her saying: “Alyssa Rachael, did you send him pictures of YOURSELF!? It was supposed to be of your car!”

She saw the funny side of the car insurance gaffe though, joking “but, you know what they say, you either have book smarts or street smarts, and I definitely do not have the latter.”

The comments below were full of people who understood her mistake, saying they would probably make the same error.

It may be the case that US insurance companies need to specify what they want pictures of, as this isn’t the first time this confusion has occurred.

Last year, Miranda Santos’ mum made the same gaffe, sending front, side and rear images of her head.

Miranda tweeted about the incident in April 2016, and has since received over 19,400 retweets.

The 2025 Insurance Times Awards took place on the evening of Wednesday 3rd December in the iconic Great Room of London’s Grosvenor House.

Hosted by comedian and actor Tom Allen, 34 Gold, 23 Silver and 22 Bronze awards were handed out across an amazing 34 categories recognising brilliance and innovation right across the breadth of UK general insurance.
Many congratulations to all the worthy winners and as always, huge thanks to our sponsors for their support and our judges for their expertise.