Florida company offering 'alien abduction insurance' has sold nearly 6,000 policies

Looking for a big insurance payout? Try getting abducted by aliens.

At least that's what one Florida company is telling its customers. The St. Lawrence Agency, also known as the "UFO Abduction Insurance Company," offers a very specific type of policy: For just $19.95, you can protect yourself against extraterrestrial encounters.

The insurance plan, which includes $10 million in coverage, was invented by Mike St. Lawrence, who describes himself as being in the "humor business," according to Florida's WFLA News.

Humor aside, the success behind St. Lawrence's alien policy is very real. He says he's sold nearly 6,000 plans since first launching his company in 1987.

The policy offers plenty of absurd benefits for any would-be abductees, including psychiatric care, "sarcasm coverage" and "double identity coverage." For just $5 more, customers can also get a paper certificate as evidence of their purchase.

Policyholders should read the fine print before they buy, though. In the event of an abduction, the plan's $10 million coverage pays out at a rate of $1 per year for 10 million years.

St. Lawrence told WFLA he's only paid out two policies since launching his business, one of which involved a customer who submitted polaroid photos of what they claimed were aliens.

Strangely enough, The St. Lawrence Agency isn't the only company that offers abduction insurance.

A 2000 article in The Daily Telegraph reported on Grip, a British company that claimed to have sold more than 37,000 alien-based policies. Another English broker called Goodfellow Rebecca Ingram Pearson also briefly offered abduction insurance in the 1990s, but later discontinued its plans after the UFO religious cult Heaven's Gate purchased a number of policies for its members.