Thursday, June 10, 2010

Bill Collector Threatens to Blow Up Man's House

Unbelievable. Calling everyday and making one's life a living hell is one thing, but threatening to kill someone and their family or damage their house definitely crosses the line. The man only owed $308.09 for a cell phone bill!! He had to move his entire family to another state because he feared the Verizon phone rep would actually harm his family.

A New Mexico couple has been living in fear ever since receiving a terrifying phone call.

"I'm going to blow your [expletive deleted] house up," said the caller.

The threatening call is allegedly from a debt collector calling about a $300 cell phone bill!

"It was scary, very scary," says Al Burrows.

Burrows and his wife Cheryl lived with their 8-year-old son in a beautiful apartment complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

"I found my dream spot," says Burrows, who admits he owed $308.09. "I intended to fully pay that bill," he says.

Burrows, who works as an airline reservations agent, says he had a lot of bills to pay that month so he contacted Verizon Wireless, and says they agreed to a payment plan. He thought the matter was settled.

"I thought I had 90 days to make this payment," he explains.

But two weeks later, Burrows says he received a call from a woman identifying herself as a Verizon representative.

"She said, 'I will harass your butt until this payment is paid today.' Of course I was all upset, I just yelled into phone, 'Who do you think you are? Don't you ever call my house again.' I hung up the phone," he says.

Later that day, when Burrows arrived at work, he checked his voicemail and heard the ominous message.

"I believed she was going to do something to hurt my family," he says.

Burrows worked the night shift, so he was worried about his wife and son being home alone. He says he looked around his house and even checked under his car for anything suspicious.

Burrows called Verizon, and he says he was shocked by their response.

Burrows tells INSIDE EDITION, "He said to me, 'You might as well tell me to turn on the TV, that aliens have landed if you expect me to believe a story like that.' "

But Burrows says he had the voicemail as proof.

He and his family found the incident so upsetting they moved over 500 miles away to Denver, Colorado. Attorney Jim Sherr is representing the family.

"Recording the conversation is evidence that you cannot dispute, it's there," says Sherr.

"This is the United States, we should feel safe and secure and not be threatened because of a little debt," Burrows says.

I can't wait to see what the debt collectors will do to the thousands of graduates who refuse or won't be able to pay their $200,000 student loan bill! This has got to stop.




7 comments:

  1. There's money to be made under the FDCPA. Check out Pete Barry. He is in your second video. It's like fish in a barrel where the fish pay you to shoot them. It rocks.

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  2. The FDCPA doesn't apply to first party collectors. It looks like this was a Verizon bill collector, which would be the first party.

    Debt collectors are seedy people but what do you expect. The US needs a total overhaul. From minority employment to education to vacation days to whatever else, we need a total overhaul.

    And maybe we can stop supporting Israel too.

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  3. Yeah I used to do some FDCPA stuff when I could find it. A quick few grand depending on the case...odd how Congress could write such a simple statute with something like this but not the really important stuff.

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  4. And in my fine state, you can get locked up for failing to pay as little as $85 to your creditors. Talk about Minnesota nice!

    "In Minnesota, judges have issued arrest warrants for people who owe as little as $85 -- less than half the cost of housing an inmate overnight."

    http://www.startribune.com/investigators/95692619.html

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  5. If the FDCPA does not apply, then a state statute might include the original creditor. Although, thanks to Obama the student loan lenders do not tneed to get a court order to garnish your wages. NICE!

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  6. Of course Verizon will disavow any knowledge of this rogue collections agent's action. But then the plaintiff's lawyers will subpoena Verizon emails urging this "lone wolf" collection agent to say/do whatever is necessary to get Verizon's money or else be fired.

    She'll be fired and then be hired by Sallie Mae.

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  7. I'd have pointed out that taking out someone's home & family will just prompt them to go on a bloodthirsty killing rampage w/the first victim being this stupid little bitch. Taking the dignity of productive citizens will just prompt smart ones to become criminals or take their rage out on society in other ways. I expect to see some loan company offices get bombed or their employees beaten if they make those kinds of threats to people.

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