Editing Darrell Issa (section)

===Quantum/Steal Stopper===
After leaving the military, Issa and his second wife, Kathy Stanton, returned to the [[Greater Cleveland|Cleveland area]]. According to Issa, he and his wife pooled their savings, sold their cars (a 1976 Mercedes and a 1967 VW [[Volkswagen Beetle|Beetle]]) and a BMW motorcycle, and borrowed $50,000 from family members to invest in Quantum Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer run by a friend from [[Cleveland Heights]]. It assembled [[bug zapper]]s, [[CB radio]] parts, and other consumer products for other companies. One of those clients, [[car alarm]] manufacturer Steal Stopper, became the path to Issa's fortune. It was struggling badly, and he took control of it by [[foreclosure|foreclosing]] a $60,000 loan he had made to it when its founder, Joey Adkins, missed a payment. Adkins remained as an employee.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/>

Issa soon turned Steal Stopper around, to the point that it was supplying [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] with thousands of car alarms and negotiating a similar deal with [[Toyota]]. Early in the morning of September 7, 1982, Quantum and Steal Stopper's offices and factory in the Cleveland suburb of [[Maple Heights, Ohio|Maple Heights]] caught fire. The fire took three hours to put out. The buildings and almost all the inventory within were destroyed. An investigation of the fire noted "suspicious burn patterns" with fires starting in two places aided by an [[accelerant]] such as [[gasoline]].<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/>

Adkins said Issa had appeared to prepare for a fire by increasing the [[fire insurance]] policy by 462% three weeks earlier, and by removing computer equipment containing accounting and customer information. St. Paul Insurance, suspicious of [[arson]] and [[insurance fraud]], initially paid only $25,000, according to Issa.<ref name="Lizza New Yorker story"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Seabrook |first1=Andrea|title=House Investigator Issa Has Faced Allegations As Well|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/04/16/150739985/house-investigator-issa-has-faced-allegations-as-well|access-date=September 12, 2016|work=All Things Considered|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=April 16, 2012}}</ref>