Gunfire at the SAIF CEO’s Home: A Warning Shot?

At 4 a.m., when even the most caffeinated insomniacs are contemplating surrender, Chip Terhune, CEO of SAIF Corporation, awoke to the sound of three bullets tearing through his front door windows. Three. Not the erratic chaos of a drive-by or some junkie misfiring a stolen Glock.

A neighbor spotted a man in black—ski mask, sprinting—vanishing into the darkness. And while a masked figure running away at that hour isn’t exactly a Lake Oswego aesthetic, the bigger issue is why he was there in the first place.

Authorities say they are investigating. Which is comforting in the way that having an umbrella in a hurricane is comforting.

SAIF isn’t a state agency, though it was created by the Oregon Legislature in 1914 to provide workers’ compensation insurance. It’s an independent, not-for-profit company with a massive influence over the industry. It is, in a very Oregon way, both public and private, existing in a bureaucratic limbo that allows it to be an entity of convenience: public when necessary, private when it suits them.

But despite being Oregon’s leading workers’ compensation insurer, SAIF has never exactly been free from controversy.

Workers’ comp claims are messy business. People get injured. They lose wages. Some feel shortchanged. Others get denied outright. Every insurance company has a long list of people who feel wronged, and SAIF—sitting at the intersection of government oversight and private-sector money—has had its fair share.

But does that translate to gunfire in the night?

That’s the question.