93-year-old froze to death, owed big utility bill. What is you thought on that?
BAY CITY, Mich. – A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.
Marvin E. Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, Oakland County’s deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.
Neighbors discovered Schur’s body on Jan. 17. They said the indoor temperature was below 32 degrees at the time, The Bay City Times reported Monday.
"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It’s not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they’re burning."
Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City Manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.
A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur’s home on Jan. 13, Belleman said. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.
The limiter was tripped sometime between the time of installation and the discovery of Schur’s body, Belleman said. He didn’t know if anyone had made personal contact with Schur to explain how the device works.
Schur’s body was discovered by neighbor George Pauwels Jr.
"His furnace was not running, the insides of his windows were full of ice the morning we found him," Pauwels told the newspaper.
Belleman said city workers keep the limiter on houses for 10 days, then shut off power entirely if the homeowner hasn’t paid utility bills or arranged to do so.
He said Bay City Electric Light & Power’s policies will be reviewed, but he didn’t believe the city did anything wrong.
"I’ve said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbors need to keep an eye on neighbors," Belleman said. "When they think there’s something wrong, they should contact the appropriate agency or city department."
Schur had no children and his wife had died several years ago.
Bay City is on Saginaw Bay, just north of the city of Saginaw in central Michigan.
The old man should have paid his bill. This country is not here to provide welfare to everyone. Where was his family? Why didn’t they take care of him? I don’t blame the power company, I blame the old man for not paying his bill and his family for letting it get that far.
The worker for the power company that shut off the power did not know it was a 90+ year old man. All they knew was there was a customer that did not pay the bill. Don’t blame the power company here.
The story is written to get sympathy for the old man. Would anyone have sympathy for you if you did not pay your bill?
This is just wrong and the electric company should be charged.
I experienced a similar situation about a month ago. I live in Canada and the weather was around -25 for a few weeks and they shut my electricity off. They said that they would put a limiter on and my furnace would work but it didn’t. I called them and told them but they said its not there concern.
So i had to sit in -25c weather for 2weeks until i got my paycheck. I basically had to live in my winter coat and under 2 blankets just to avoid freezing. Trust me its not fun.
Im only 22 and i was able to survive but that guy is 93, they should never have turned his power off.
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I think this is pitiful, and the electric co. should have contacted social services. Don’t tell me they don’t have a clue as to how many years you have had an account with them. With someone of this age, how many years do you suppose that was? But they don’t care. You can pay your bills on time for a million years but be late once and they will shut you off without caring. With something like this, you would think they would have checkpoints in place before doing this. It’s just another example of uncaring greedy grubs of companies.
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The old man should have paid his bill. This country is not here to provide welfare to everyone. Where was his family? Why didn’t they take care of him? I don’t blame the power company, I blame the old man for not paying his bill and his family for letting it get that far.
The worker for the power company that shut off the power did not know it was a 90+ year old man. All they knew was there was a customer that did not pay the bill. Don’t blame the power company here.
The story is written to get sympathy for the old man. Would anyone have sympathy for you if you did not pay your bill?
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How sad!! It is wrong to shut off heat from an elderly person like that and cause them to die. If he had family living, someone could have taken him in, of course he could have gone to a homeless shelter I guess at least during the night. To me what the electric company did was unconscionable and was directly responsible for his death. They need to be held accountable.
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The end of his suffering…….
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I just read this article this morning and I’m still nauseous. Usually I am the first to say, "Pay your bills." BUT, this is disgusting. I didn’t even know they could do that. Where I live they cannot turn off utilities of the elderly or homes with sick people or children during the winter.
What shocked me more is the lack of remorse from the electric company. "Neighbors need to keep an eye on neighbors." Well how where they supposed to know? Did they go around to the houses in the neighborhood and say "Hey we’re as*holes and turning this 93 year old mans heat off in the dead of the winter. So you may want to check on him from time to time to make sure that he is not freezing to death."
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I agree with Irish Eyes, the company even had an employee AT THIS MAN’S HOME to install the "limiter"! They are fully responsible in my eyes and their lack of even the slightest remorse or concern shows just how callous and greedy they are. Sure, blame it on the NEIGHBORS! (Who found the man the NEXT morning!)
What really gets me is that people have to provide a social security number to get service, so why can’t the utility company have safeguards in their system for people living on SSI? This poor man had no family and his treatment at the age of 93 should have been respectful and caring and instead it was humiliating and heartless. People should be outraged and the power company should be held criminally liable.
It is pathetic that the banks got a $700 bill. bailout and a 93 year old freezes to death because he can’t pay his bills! I wonder what the power company reported for their profits last quarter. I bet the CEO’s mother is nice and cozy…
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