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.
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