City cuts electricity -- and he froze to death

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City cuts electricity -- and he froze to death
Posted: Jan 26, 2009 12:00 PM
Updated: Jan 26, 2009 12:16 PM
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his Bay City home just days after the city limited his flow of electricity for not paying his bills. The Bay City Times reports Monday the indoor temperature was below freezing when neighbors discovered Marvin E. Schur's body on Jan. 17.

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I just CAN'T believe this! The city shuts off this elderly man's electricity, and he freezes to death and the city doesn't think they did anything wrong?
What the heck? Does anyone else find this as disgusting and disturbing as I do?

What should the city have done? They give plenty of notice before they shut the power off.
Are they supposed to just give everyone free power? Maybe under the Messiah Obama eventually.

My state forces people to pay extra fees on their bills for charity cases, but I don't know how the company decides who gets free power.

i thought that this was against the law,,, where even if your bill is unpaid they can't do that in winter

i swear i've heard of that law a million times

maybe it's an old wives tale????

This is a very very sad and disturbing thing, but honestly I can not say that I am shocked. It goes right along with the corperate greed and is the reason the world is in the shape it is in! No concern for you, me or anybody...what matters is the almighty dollar!

Poor man was 93. Probably didn't even realize what was happening. I hope someone conducts a serious investigation to find out what happened so they can prevent this from reoccurring in the future.

I fully understand the position of the power company as I was a business owner before I retired.

I can also understand the plight of those that are having a difficult time paying their bills.

Is it possible our wonderful federal government could give utility companies incentives, tax breaks, to help the elderly keep their services on when the temperature is freezing?

It is a sad thing to happen to anyone.

reply to post by jam321


Exactly he was 93! He probably forgot to pay his bill. Man this is really F'ed up.

All the ridiculous ways that this country finds to spend money - bailing out the rich -
All of the waste - and this happens. It's disgusting.

Originally posted by shortywarn
i thought that this was against the law,,, where even if your bill is unpaid they can't do that in winter

i swear i've heard of that law a million times

maybe it's an old wives tale????

I have heard this also ...I think in most states the electric/gas companies "no shut off" runs from Nov 1st thru April 15th.

Contrary to popular beleife the company can and will shut your power off, even in the middle of winter.
It used to be a law they couldn't but that changed.
I know a single mother with three small children and the power company shut her electricity off on friday at 430pm. She's been without power since...today (mon) they told her they would have it back on by wed IF she paid an extra 200.00 deposit and 100.00 reconnect fee as well as her past due bill.
And this is Alaska in the middle of the coldest winter in a decade!

I have tried to make payment arrangements due to the high cost of electricity and being on Social insecurity and the don't have a payment program. I was told even if I have medical equipment they WILL shut me off....I keep my thermostat at 55 and only have one light on...the occassional computer and that's it and my bill runs 400.00 per month right now and the lovely power company just gave themselves a rate increase of another 50.00 a month.

I've often wondered what happened to the old rule of not shutting off peoples power in the middle of winter...population control by te government I suppose

Originally posted by SilentOne
Contrary to popular beleife the company can and will shut your power off, even in the middle of winter.
It used to be a law they couldn't but that changed.
I know a single mother with three small children and the power company shut her electricity off on friday at 430pm. She's been without power since...today (mon) they told her they would have it back on by wed IF she paid an extra 200.00 deposit and 100.00 reconnect fee as well as her past due bill.
And this is Alaska in the middle of the coldest winter in a decade!

I have tried to make payment arrangements due to the high cost of electricity and being on Social insecurity and the don't have a payment program. I was told even if I have medical equipment they WILL shut me off....I keep my thermostat at 55 and only have one light on...the occassional computer and that's it and my bill runs 400.00 per month right now and the lovely power company just gave themselves a rate increase of another 50.00 a month.

I've often wondered what happened to the old rule of not shutting off peoples power in the middle of winter...population control by te government I suppose

Alaska. Sarah palin is Governor. It is all starting to make sense.
In case you all haven't noticed Sara and her followers want all the "undesirables" to be dead. It's as simple as that.

Get a grip, and stop making a mountain out of a mole hill. If you live anywhere that has four seasons, having some form of back-up heat source is a basic requirement so you don't die in the winter. Power can, and does go out all the time in the winter, it doesn't matter if it gets shut off because of late/non payment or if a tree falls down on some lines.

This man would have died either way. In fact, to play devils advocate, who is to say that he didn't do it purposefully? He was 92, and possibly thought freezing to death was the least violent way to kill himself. He could have just did it because he thought he was ready and it was time. None of know so stop assuming him to be a poor guy.

This should serve as a reminder to people, if nothing else, to not rely on services that could kill you if lost due to circumstance. You can't stay warm if the lights go out? really?

This truly breaks my heart,we really need to be more vigilant on behalf of our vulnerable neighbors

I'm going to go sob for awhile ..this is pathetic

I see lots of people saying what the old fashioned way of this or that in here. What about the old fashioned way of paying your bill? Where was his family if he had any to make sure he was OK? What about neighbors? One of my employee's was leaving over the new years and I know his dad is pretty old, the first thing I asked before he left was if his dad needed anyone to call for anything while he was gone.

Community and family is to blame here! Its not the government that should be trying to make sure this 93 year old man doesn't freeze to death. For all we know he could have wasted his money on booze and smokes or hookers, rather then pay his bills. We don't know the whole story.

And why would anyone expect a company to just take care of the man? If your work stops paying you are you going to keep showing up? I know I'm not. If every business just gave stuff to people who couldn't pay them then very quickly nobody would get electricity or other goods because they wouldn't be in business.

Reading this thread it's no wonder we are in the shape we are economically. Everyone is expecting free hand outs and trusting government to make sure everything is taken care of without ever bothering to learn for themselves. I'm all for helping people but I'm tired of the worthless deadbeats of America that make true hardworking Americans look bad. Rather then sit here and bash in a thread or say your going to go off and sob, go knock your neighborhood doors and get to know people. Volunteer to help out in your city's or even deliver food to the elderly.

(sadly I know this will fall on deaf ears because I don't have an avatar to rack up stars for)

WAKE UP AMERICA!

Goes to show how human we really are..i know he didint pay his bills, but jesus man, he was 93..and they prob knew he was going to freeze to death..which to me, means this was orchestrated murder..plain and simple..
and we wanna save the planet? somehow, dosnt make sense, does it.. especially since technology for greener cars and heat is and haas been intentionally supressed form us.. only place were goin, is back to the darka ges, when all is said and done..

Look at my post ,I do blame community but the company has to bear responsibility too ,because here's a thought companies are in our communities and we shouldn't let them evade responsibility either everyone dropped the ball here . Shameful

Originally posted by invisiblewoman
Look at my post ,I do blame community but the company has to bear responsibility too ,because here's a thought companies are in our communities and we shouldn't let them evade responsibility either everyone dropped the ball here . Shameful

If it turns out the 93 year old man was nothing but a boozer and smoker that wasted his retirement money over the ages and his family abandoned him, is it still shameful? Is it still shameful if this has been going on for over a year with this guy and he thinks its just owed to him and calls in yelling at their call center every day?

We don't know the facts and never will. But shameful for a company to turn off service after not receiving payments and probably over a generous amount of time?

City cuts electricity -- and he froze to death
Posted: Jan 26, 2009 12:00 PM
Updated: Jan 26, 2009 12:16 PM
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his Bay City home just days after the city limited his flow of electricity for not paying his bills. The Bay City Times reports Monday the indoor temperature was below freezing when neighbors discovered Marvin E. Schur's body on Jan. 17.

HOLY CRAP! Way to downplay SHUTTING OFF his electricity .. really? come on... limited his flow? what is he a 93 year old rap star?

They SHUT it off because they are heartless bastards, I am having a similar issue with my LOSER gas company Terasen right now, like dammit I lost my job, I can't magically predict when I'll be able to pay without one of those!

Notice how all of our problems as society really start rearing their head once the FLOW OF MONEY is cut.

Once we the people don't have enough money to grease the wheels of this crap system they start taking advantage of us because why? They want to blame this problem on US?
It's not our fault they allowed this(economy) crap to happen.


[edit on 1/27/2009 by PuRe EnErGy]

There's laws on this I believe.They should have done something.
They should have forced him to go to a shelter or an old age facility or something if all extreme measures had been taken to keep his power on.
You cant just leave someone especially someone who is incapacitated or helpless without heating when its below freezing.
Its murder.They should have done something.

"Reading this thread it's no wonder we are in the shape we are economically. Everyone is expecting free hand outs and trusting government to make sure everything is taken care of without ever bothering to learn for themselves. I'm all for helping people but I'm tired of the worthless deadbeats of America that make true hardworking Americans look bad. Rather then sit here and bash in a thread or say your going to go off and sob, go knock your neighborhood doors and get to know people. Volunteer to help out in your city's or even deliver food to the elderly.

(sadly I know this will fall on deaf ears because I don't have an avatar to rack up stars for)

WAKE UP AMERICA!"

You want to know why your country is in the economical trouble? It is not because people looking for handouts. Try looking too the psychopaths(most of the government) that the sheeple think have your best interests a heart. Look at what they spend most of your hard earned money or should I say your tax dollars on. WAR and more WEAPONS for WAR, or have you not watched or read the news in the last century? QUESTION ALL AUTHORITY!!!