NAPERVILLE, IL — A Naperville man confirmed Tuesday that he has been faithfully paying $8.99 per month for an extended warranty on a Bosch dishwasher that was hauled to a salvage yard last August, following what he described as a “total and irreversible flooding situation.”

Derek Callahan, 41, says he enrolled in the Sears Home Warranty Protection Plan in the spring of 2024 after a neighbor mentioned it at a block party. He has since paid $107.88 in premiums covering an appliance that, by his own estimate, “is probably a planter somewhere by now.”

When asked why he continued paying after purchasing a replacement dishwasher in August, Callahan said he assumed the plan would transfer automatically. When asked how he thought it would transfer to the new appliance without him calling anyone, he looked at the wall for several seconds.

“I figured if something went wrong with the new one, the old warranty would just… know.”

“There’s a phone number on the card,” said Callahan’s wife, Sandra Callahan, 39, who had mentioned the discrepancy in October, November, January, and again on Tuesday morning. “There has always been a phone number on the card.”

A customer service representative at the warranty company, reached for comment, confirmed that claims cannot be filed on appliances that no longer exist, and that this policy is outlined on page four of the welcome packet.

Callahan does not have the welcome packet.

At press time, Callahan had located the welcome packet, discovered he also has a protection plan on a laptop he gave to his college-bound nephew in 2023, and was described by Sandra as “sitting very still.”