Financial Trouble Can Be Deadly

Check out this piece I ran into about how a bad financial situation started an unfortunate series of events:

A mother and daughter in difficult financial straits escaped injury this morning when a candle they were using for illumination in their Northglenn townhouse tipped over and started a fire.

"They had some financial struggles and power had been shut off at in their home, so they were living by candlelight," Wendy Krajewski, spokeswoman for North Metro Fire Rescue, said.

"That's what ended up being the cause of the fire. Someone forgot to extinguish a candle. It tipped over and the fire spread."

So sad.

And on a related note, here's a guy who set himself on fire because of debts incurred:

A Newark man frustrated with the volume of late payment notices and collection calls he received from a Bloomfield Rent-A-Center store, walked into the business Tuesday and set himself ablaze in front of several employees and customers.

"He basically pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid, poured it all over his body, pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit himself on fire," Bloomfield Police Capt. Chris Goul said.

As the Consumerist points out:

If you're in debt and having a hard time dealing with the collection calls and notices, there's help available. The first thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If you're being harassed, you can sent a letter to the debt collector demanding that they stop contacting you. They do not have the right to keep contacting you simply to try to get you to pay. You can also do a little research and locate some free or low cost legal help in your area. If you have a lawyer, the debt collectors are required to contact the attorney instead of you. If the debt collectors don't follow these rules, you can sue them! Not being able to pay your bills can be a humiliating experience, but don't give up.

I echo their suggestion to not give up. There are always better solutions than harming yourself or others.

Comments

[Andy]

Sobering article, but some solid advice at the end. If a debt collector ever calls you, you should get their name, phone number and company they represent. Do this first, because if they harass you, you know have their details to report to the FTC. You would be surprised at how many don't like to give these details (even though they legally have to)

[Sam]

Sad things like this has to happen. Here in Philippines, you could hear more troubling news. A mother sells her daughter for food, men sell their kidneys to foreigners for money etc..however, it never go far as killing themselves..maybe its just a culture thing?

[Sue]

The thing about debt collectors is until they reach the debtor, they can legally call their home up to five times a day so just getting their comapany name doesn't mean they won't keep trying for the intended person. Once they speak with the debtor they can't talk to you again for "awhile", usually a week.

[Lin]

Every year there's a story or two about a family whose natural gas service has been cut off due to lack of payment ... they try to get by on space heaters. They make the news because the space heater overloads and causes a fire that kills one (or all) of the kids. Or, they use a kerosene or charcoal heater indoors and someone ends up dead from carbon monoxide poisioning...
The sad part is there is emergency assistance available, and in most places the gas company usually doesn't turn off the heat during the dead of winter. But either the folks don't know or won't get the help, or they'd dug themselves into the hole during the previous winter, and never got the gas turned back on..