Sad when you have no friends. You end up dieing alone in the cold.
93-year-old froze to death, owed big utility bill
Mon Jan 26, 3:32 pm ET
BAY 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.
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Information from: The Bay City Times, http://www.mlive.com/bay-city
Sad when you have no friends. You end up dieing alone in the cold.
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Originally Posted by WNYresident
I keep hoping one of my kids will push my wheelchair out in the son when I get older,, I have too many takers for pushing it down the stairs.
The company should have sent somebody over to check on the guy, or at least given him information of public shelters, if nothing else a ride to one.
A shame in most "CIVILIZED" industrial nations of the world Veterans are treated as Heros. In the US most are treated as FREE CHEESERS! Most states and fed govern don't give them anything at all now. And before you go saying the VA grant look it up it's a joke!
That company should be brought up on charges of Reckless Homicide!
Do you know in Japan WW2 vets never had to work got a steady income from military, they had a home provided to them for life, free medical, all transportation, and are considered important people in they're community.
No this is a very touchy subject with me because I have seen this happen time and time again. The Government and the people in this country love us when they need us to save they're sorry asses but when peace time comes we are tossed out like an unneed old defective rifle.
Why do I still advise and train at my age....because the retirement for disabled vets suck!
Even Dictators have to respect the will of the pawns, for without their obedience, they have no power at all!
Well said.
Brutally tragic story. Heart wrenching.
Vets con-TINUE getting snubbed by our government;The record number of homeless vets, the hospitals and programs closed down,
the LACK OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERAGE on the plight of our vets alone makes my blood boil.
Then there's all the DU (Depleted Uranium) poisoning in Iraq, Afghanastan in our troop's bodies, broken families, broken MINDS, record disfigurements and traumatic brain injury and here we have "just another" forgotten WW II vet who died a slow, agonizing horrible death?
The man serves his nation with honor and freezes to death in the "best country in the world" because the utility company just HAD to act like a greedy slumlord?
People should NOT have to have The Who's mentality from the song
'We Won't Get Fooled Again:'
"I hope I die before I get old."
Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys.
Emma Bull
I thought it was illegal to shut off any senior or person with a babys power or heat in the winter?
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.
obviously not.
Goes to show social security doesnt pay. But some will say the guy should have 'saved more'
I thought I read that there was some type of use limit device that was exceeded ,and the power was auto turned off until the power co. reset it or bill was paid.
Appartently nobody bothered to come over and reset it.
If he was in the army should he have gotten a pension of some type?
"I know you guys enjoy reading my stuff because it all makes sense. "
Dumbest post ever! Thanks for the laugh PO!
Just think all that money we send to Mexico for planned parenthood we could use for better things here!
"I know you guys enjoy reading my stuff because it all makes sense. "
Dumbest post ever! Thanks for the laugh PO!
Not unless he did 20 years and retired
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.
It's 20 years for a pension? But my town sup can get it after 5 years? What a crock!
"I know you guys enjoy reading my stuff because it all makes sense. "
Dumbest post ever! Thanks for the laugh PO!
YA...BUT IT'S MUCH MORE DANGEROUS..dealing with the LUNATIC TAXPAYERS!!!!!
I have a hard time taking anyone that blames the Company for this seriously.
The Company's job isn't to lose money. If the 93 year old man let his bill get to $1100 this wasn't a case of "I forgot".
If he hadn't of died from the weather in his home he would have wandered off in the woods and died, walked in to traffic, etc
He had no family, he had no friends. It's a tragic story, but it's how the cookie crumbles.
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