Insurance company accuses man of building Rube Goldberg machine to burn his house down

Five years ago Christopher Robinson's $1.6 million house in New Zealand burned down. He was 400km away when it happened. The house was insured by IAG, which has not paid Mr. Robinson because it says he started the fired using a chain-reaction machine that was controlled by a remote computer.

From The Independent:

IAG's fire investigators believe Mr Robinson set the fire himself - from remote.

Sifting through the remains of the home, they found an Acer desktop computer which, forensic tests showed, had been remotely accessed on the night of the fire.

They also found the burned-out remains of two printers, which were connected to the Acer, and tell-tale burn marks to suggest the fire had involved the use of an accelerant such as petrol.

The investigators' theory, according to Stuff, is that Mr Robinson used his Macbook Pro in Hamilton to log in to the Acer remotely.

The Acer then (according to the theory) sent a command to the printer, which pulled through a piece of paper, which pulled a piece of string, which was attached to a switch. The switch would then turn on a 12V battery, heating an element that would light a match, setting alight a flammable liquid and, finally, bringing down the whole house.