What do you think of the news story about a 93 year old man who froze to death because of unpaid bills?
before I post the whole new story,finally I got some all new questions here I will post all of them,I am going out later today and I want to get as many of my new questions posted so here is the news story,
BAY CITY, Mich. (Jan. 26) – 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."
A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur’s home on Jan. 13, said Bay City Manager Robert Belleman. 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.
There was no word Monday whether the device had blown out or confirmation of the amount Schur owed to Bay City Electric Light & Power; city officials did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Belleman said he didn’t know if anyone made personal contact with Schur to explain how the device works.
The body was discovered by neighbor George Pauwels Jr., who said Schur had almost $1,100 in unpaid electric bills. Pauwels told the newspaper he saw cash clipped to those bills on the kitchen table on the day he found Schur’s body.
"His furnace was not running, the insides of his windows were full of ice the morning we found him," Pauwels told the Bay City News.
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.
and that is the story,I think what the utility people did was in deed wrong,what about you.
It is another disgusting and extreme example of corporate greed and callousness. I am livid that the company refuses any responsibility for this man’s death and has the audacity to blame the neighbors! (For crying out loud – they found him the next morning! What did the power company expect them to do? Pay the man’s bill?!)
There is no reason why a company that provides a necessity and requires people’s SSN for service can’t provide safeguards for their customers who live off of SSI. This man had no family and was 93 years old – I am willing to bet he was a good man who paid his taxes and contributed to society only to be murdered by a corporation – how disrespectful!! The power company had a representative of their business AT THIS MAN’S HOME only a few days prior to this event and did NOTHING to assist him. (I think that worker bears some personal responsibility for their lack of humanity. I hope he or she feels like CRAP!) As for the utility company, I hope its customers give them an earful and that they are prosecuted for manslaughter. The sentence should include requiring them to come up with a way to prevent this from ever happening again.
It is pathetic that the bloodsucking bankers got $700 billion and a 93 year old man froze to death because he couldn’t pay his bills. I wonder what kind of profits the power company had last quarter…I bet the CEO’s mother is nice and cozy…
Yes, I read that this morning and I thought it was so sad. First off, I’m sure the power company could have waited till spring to work something out. Second, it is true, neighbors should try to keep an eye on each other. I live far from my own mom, but she has many people that check in on her all the time. I call her to make sure she is okay. It’s just all so sad, and to think of the bail outs these banks and companies are getting, yet this man dies for his unpaid bill.
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Ive never heard of a limiter before. in fairness, in many other countries, UK included, i think they just give you lots of warnings then shut off your power. at least the us has this limiter thing to keep the essentials running after the warnings. and in fairness, if a supermarket had a customer owing them $1000, would they be right to deny the customer food?
its harsh true, and i feel sorry for him, but this world is one where sadly nothing is free
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The utility people make me sick.There trying to pass the buck.The poor man died a terrible death.They should be prosecuted for murder.
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thats really sad,just shows how you should keep an eye on your elderly neighbours
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sorry did not see your posting,did the same thing,can you imagine the agony of freezing to death,we can give money to any tom dick or harry that sticks his hand out but let this happen,disgusting beond words,
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That is a terrible story and tragedy that didn’t have to happen.
So the Utility & Gas Co. is trying to pass the buck. When they put the ‘limiter’ on, nobody noticed an old man there. Huh. I’ve never even heard of a ‘Limiter’. These are the cases where companies have become ‘machines’ and non-personal nowadays. So nobody has to take the ‘blame’.
Who knows what state of mind or health this gentleman, who deserved better and probably saw better days with decent people was in at the time? – We as a society need to start looking out for one another, – plain and simple.
God bless our future, because we are all going to be old someday..
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from my side this is a sad thing, the electricity people could have asked the person what was the matter all about that they could not pay thier bills and should have given them some time to recover their bills,although we all know that the each and every person is not so rich as billgates so that as soon as the bill comes we then and there only pay the bill, the man as frozen to death means how many times would the electricity people would have asked those both to pay the bills even though they both would have said that they have some finance problem
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that is sad and.
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It is another disgusting and extreme example of corporate greed and callousness. I am livid that the company refuses any responsibility for this man’s death and has the audacity to blame the neighbors! (For crying out loud – they found him the next morning! What did the power company expect them to do? Pay the man’s bill?!)
There is no reason why a company that provides a necessity and requires people’s SSN for service can’t provide safeguards for their customers who live off of SSI. This man had no family and was 93 years old – I am willing to bet he was a good man who paid his taxes and contributed to society only to be murdered by a corporation – how disrespectful!! The power company had a representative of their business AT THIS MAN’S HOME only a few days prior to this event and did NOTHING to assist him. (I think that worker bears some personal responsibility for their lack of humanity. I hope he or she feels like CRAP!) As for the utility company, I hope its customers give them an earful and that they are prosecuted for manslaughter. The sentence should include requiring them to come up with a way to prevent this from ever happening again.
It is pathetic that the bloodsucking bankers got $700 billion and a 93 year old man froze to death because he couldn’t pay his bills. I wonder what kind of profits the power company had last quarter…I bet the CEO’s mother is nice and cozy…
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I am sickened by this, I can only imagine how that poor man felt and how awfull the pain had to have been to freeze to death. There should be something done to help the elderly, this should never have been allowed to happen and it should never happen again.
But of course if will, those money hungry aholes don’t care about anyone or anything but the size of their bank accounts. There should be some kind of a law to protect the elderly from things like this, especially in the winter.
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It is disgusting. The utility & gas companies are raising their prices and not bothering to lower them when the actual cost of oil goes down. Bay City Electric Light & Power should be charged with negligent homicide. Perhaps then they would act more like responsible human beings and not a greedy, soulless corporation.
That said, yes – people need to pay their bills. But the corporations also need to take these late payment problems on a case-by-case basis and not kill an elderly customer that probably would have paid via payment plan, if it were offered.
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