93-year-old Froze to Death, Owed Big Utility Bill

[ou.grizzly]

This is very sad news. Quote, originally posted by Comcast News »93-year-old froze to death, owed big utility bill6 hours agoLoading... Must Read?Thank YouYes 1314BAY 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.More information can be found here http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-....html

[Raven]

That's murder. Here in Canada your power can not be shut off during the winter months.

[BlueCrush]

I saw this earlier today. The power company murdered that poor man. They should never, NEVER, turn off the power in the winter in cold weather states under any circumstance. NEVER!!!! Other cold weather states need to adopt a Cold Weather Rule (like we have in Minnesota) from November 1st thru April 1st (or something like that). It's rediculous. It makes we sick.

[northvibe]

thats sad.Here in MN, Duluth, they cant turn off the utility that heats your home during the winter months even if you cant pay. They also suggest if you are having a hard time to call the utility company and work out a payment plan that will work. I mean its wrong not to pay your bills, but they shouldnt cut off the utility that keeps them warm in the winter....

[Sublimewind]

Michigan is a poverty stricken state, it's truely sad to drive around sometimes and see it, first hand... Trailers attached to trailers to make "makeshift" doublewides... I've had my gas shut off in the middle of winter, 2yrs ago in fact... Luckly a side grinder can fix that easily... I called the gas co FUMING.... I told them, don't bother sending someone to remove the lock... they said that's illegal, I told them to send someone right away then, let you guys waist your time and gas, because I wasn't letting my house freeze.. I never herd a word back... I can see people not being able to pay the bills, but to cut them off in weather that is KNOWN to KILL, that's murder... the electric co will fall back on the fact that the device they used was "re-setable" but It seems they didn't take into account that the man was 93... like he has a clue as to what to do..the saddest part of this is that we will never know if he was given instruction on how to do the re-set or if they just mounted the device and left... Surely the electric co will say the former... Someone should go to jail...