A Lynnwood, Wash., man faces charges of insurance fraud for allegedly claiming car thieves stole the same $33,000 collection of silk ties — not once, not twice, but three times in nine years, according to state insurance regulators.

Carlton H. Wopperer, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned on July 6 in Snohomish County Superior Court on two counts of insurance fraud, according to the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Authorities say that within a nine-year period, he reported that thieves had stolen his collection of 212 silk ties from his vehicle three times, even though authorities allege that he typically returned the ties within minutes of buying them.

On Jan. 5, 2009, Wopperer told the Mill Creek Police Department that his vehicle had been broken into while parked at a greeting card store. He said that four plastic containers containing 212 of his silk neckties had been stolen. He said that he’d taken the ties to a quilt shop to see about having them sewn onto a quilt for display.

Wopperer purchased replacement ties from Nordstrom, Butch Blum, Barneys New York and Mario’s of Seattle, submitting the receipts to his insurer. His insurer, PEMCO Insurance, paid him $33,370 under the terms of a provision allowing for replacement cost of stolen items, authorities said.

Six months later, on June 9, 2009, Wopperer reported to the Everett Police Department that his vehicle had been broken into while he was moving. The 212 replacement ties that he’d purchased following the January theft had been stolen, he said. He subsequently filed an insurance claim for about $35,000.

But a PEMCO adjuster, checking with the retailers, learned that most of the ties purchased in January had been returned almost immediately. PEMCO denied Wopperer’s claim and reported the case to Washington’s Special Investigations Unit, where investigators interviewed store employees, documented the paper trail and referred the case to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office.