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.
Found by John Ligums.
It’s hard for me not to blame All americans for this tragedy, you have the power to change things like this, But do nothing but fain outrage.
#1, liv,
On the contrary. I think some City Manager will be looking for a new job very soon. I also think a few councilors will be wondering what to do after being forced out of office.
You may only lie to people for so long before people get wise. Bush and his Republicans didn’t heed the mood in 2006 and suffered an even worse fate in 2008. If they continue to obstruct over the next two years look for even few Republicans in Washington.
So, whats the issue here? Free energy for everybody? How would that work?
He lived in his home but could not afford or chose not to spend money on energy.
If he had no money should the State (as in Nanny?) have forced him into a nursing home (or given a bus ticket to Florida?) for heat and shelter and sold his home to pay for it?
If his choice, allowed him to make it or declare him crazy and a ward of the State?
Too complex for simple declarations.
For the last month, there have been a man and woman camped out in a refuge make-shift pup tent by the creek in back of my house. Neighbor says they are a man and wife who lost their jobs then their house who used to live in the neighborhood. I offered them use of our shower and bath but they refused.
Live really sucks unless you want to actually establish a social safety net==but who wants to do that when Executive Bonuses are at stake?
According to the video linked to from the linked story, a utility bill was found on the man’s kitchen table with “a large amount of money clipped to it.” To get so close…
Nightmare.
Thank you mr.fusion, you give me hope
He must have been white. tsk.
I wish we’d start really feeling global warming. This freezing weather across the world is killing too many.
bobbo
You could try offering other items they may need. Water, waterless hand cleaner or baby wipes to clean with. They may just want to keep from imposing on you and your generosity.
Quote from the city manager:
“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.”
That’s right, blame it on the neighbors who actually found the body, for not getting there sooner.
I hope Belleman fries.
Sad and tragic as this is, the man had options that he chose not to use. Would it be any sadder if his furnace had broken down in the night and he froze because he didn’t get the hell out of there to someplace warm?
Just because the city is in the electricity business does not mean it isn’t a business. But the city manager needs to adopt a better attitude all the same. Perhaps a few night in jail with “Bubba” will do it.
Anyone that old and living by themselves needs some type of caseworker. End of story.
This is an example of criminal negligence. Heads must roll for this! I lived in a town where they once let and elderly woman stay in her home even though she was well past paying her taxes and bills. To boot the community helped out. No one wanted to be remembered as the one that kicked out an old woman to starve. Where is the sense of moral justice here? Economics be damned this is wrong on so many levels. In other societies they revere their elders. If we continue down this path the country will go to heck faster then you know.
This sad story is not unique.
When I was a teacher in Front Royal, VA a security guard who was always struggling financially died of a heart attack. We heard that the phone had been knocked down as he tried to call 911 but the line had been disconnected for non-payment.
I have always thought that at least 911 should work on a disconnected line.
I hate to say this, but I can’t blame the city for this one. If someone is too inept to take care of themselves, then what do we do? It could have been that he couldn’t afford medicine for a treatable condition that killed him. Or a million other things.
I know times are tough. But to cope all you have to do is ask yourself “How did your ancestors deal with things?”. My relatives survived as landless peasants in Norway before carving out a life for themselves on the ice cold prairies of Minnesota. They didn’t bitch and moan and let themselves freeze to death. They learned how to insulate, and how to chop wood/peat/dung in order to heat a place to survive the winter.
Read the journals from the Lewis and Clark expeditions about the way they survived the winter of 1804/1805 in the Dakotas with almost nothing.
His problem with the electric bill was a symptom of a problem, not the problem. In this case, it is not the electric company’s job to provide free heat to those who can’t manage their affairs. If the man’s own family couldn’t take care of him, then the county’s social services should have stepped in. This month it was the electric bill. Next month he won’t take his medicine. Where does it end?
Here in the UK old folk (>65) get £25 per a week extra every time the temperature drops below freezing, plus £200 every December to go towards heating bills
#14, That is dumb. This man was 93 years old. We have all the means in the world to take care of a situation like this before it happens. A 93 year old man shouldn’t have to chop wood or collect dung to burn in one of the largest metropolitan areas in America. It isn’t like this man lived out in the wilderness somewhere! Anytime a senior citizen (for arguments sake let’s say 75 years or older) can’t pay a bill for services that are imperative for their survival, social services need to be notified. He was obviously neglected and that is a reflection on our indifferent society when it comes to the elderly. If someone is too inept to take care of themselves then WE, AS A SOCIETY, TAKE CARE OF THEM!!!
Your logic sounds like it is straight out of Nazi Germany.
#14, Ron
Around here the utilities need permission to cut off someone’s power or gas during the winter. If they need help with their bills, the utility is to contact a Social Service agency to help out.
If you read the article you would have noticed that he didn’t have a family.
I’ve said it before but it bears saying it again. People of his generation all helped to build this country. They laid down the roads. They joined up and beat the Germans and Japanese. They sent their children to school to become our doctors, engineers, lawyers, and shoe salesmen. They changed your diapers when you were still in them. They all gave of themselves to make our lives better. It takes a mighty selfish mind to turn them away now.
FYI, there aren’t too many peat bogs in suburban areas.
In a free society. People are free to freeze to death. At the end of the day there has to be individual responsibility. If grandpa had over $1000 worth of unpaid electric, why didn’t he try to seek help or financial assistance BEFORE it got cold. There are many programs to help people in this exact same situation. Electricity is not a civil right. What some commenters suggest is that we live in a country where the government watches us reads our mail, watches whether or not we pay or bills. If we fail to pay our utilities or buy groceries, the government steps in and strips us of our rights and we become wards of the state whenever the government deems us as incompetent. That would have saved this man’s life, but would you want to live in that country?
You are nattering nabobs of negativism!
Congratulations to all the little people who helped him live so long.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to come off as being Nazi harsh. I just think the blame on the power company is misdirected.
The man could not take of himself. That was the point I was making. The electric company can’t make judgement calls on each customer. They don’t know him and and are not privy to the details of his life.
He had no friends or family to care for him. So it falls to government social services. And where were they? How can they be alerted to a citizen’s needs when the citizen doesn’t ask for help, or otherwise come to their attention?
I don’t think there is any easy answer to this tragedy. The alternative is a massive nanny-state that monitors your every move.
#13
Here in Honduras the 911 is an emergency number and can be dialed regardless.
I can’t believe how many heartless people on this blog. The guy was 93 years old!
why couldn’t the city put a lien against his house? Whenever he dies or sells it, the city gets it’s money back.
just think how many senior’s heating bills could be paid for by buying one less cruise missile.
I agree. #14 is rather out there. Your ancestors im sure were capable of doing those things… When you reach 93 and are alone, it’s quite a different story. It wouldnt have taken much for someone to check on an elderly man who was trying to stay as independent (as we all would like) in his last years. A simple phone call would have let you know there was something wrong. I don’t care if this man was a saint or a serial killer.. people shouldnt have to die like that. & def not alone.
“Sad and tragic as this is, the man had options that he chose not to use. Would it be any sadder if his furnace had broken down in the night and he froze because he didn’t get the hell out of there to someplace warm?”
He was 93. Think “dementia”. I understand all the well-spoken arguments above but I still think the utility should be virorously sodomozed (symbolically) in court for letting an old guy freeze to death.
#20, Ron,
The electric company can’t make judgement calls on each customer.
Like I said earlier, in Indiana local utilities need permission to cut some one off in winter. For those not in the Mid-West, that was a very cold spell around here. I imagine it was even colder in Michigan on the Lake.
Anyone, especially a City Manager, had better use some brains if he cuts off someone’s power in the winter with below 0 F temperatures outside. Coulda, whoulda, shoulda, doesn’t cut it. KNOWING does.
There was nothing in the article that the neighbors knew his power was cut.
#7 Paddy
Come to Melbourne, Australia if you want some global warming. Yesterday was 38 deg Celsius, today is 40, tomorrow 43 and then 40 and 40 forecast. Probably an unprecedented heat wave. Out water storages are approaching 20% and it hasn’t really rained much for 2 months. We are also in the grip of a 10 year drought.
30 years ago Melbourne was regularly ridiculed for being the ‘rainy’ city.
Perhaps its time you gave your myopic ‘gee its cold today, what happened to global warming’ bullshit a rest.
My hometown…sad as it is, the city made many attempts to get a hold of the gentleman and only put a “coupling” on the power to reduce the energy to the home for only non-essentials (this is what they do to non-payers) So he had power, how he chose to use it is in question.
#16,
If someone is too inept to take care of themselves then WE, AS A SOCIETY, TAKE CARE OF THEM!!!
Your logic sounds like it is straight out of Nazi Germany.
Actually, the society taking care of everyone is part of Nazism, not the other way around.
From “The 25 Points of Hitler’s Nazi Party”
7. We demand that the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood.
15. We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.
People tend to forget that Hitler’s Germany wanted the people to depend on the State. State is Mother, State is Father.
That being said, Fusion is right: Around here the utilities need permission to cut off someone’s power or gas during the winter. If they need help with their bills, the utility is to contact a Social Service agency to help out.
I believe most communities have a regulation/law very similar. At least everywhere I’ve lived. We’re paying the taxes so we might as well use the service.
I’m sorry but if you are 93 somebody needs to be checking on you on a regular bases. Your mind may not be what it once was.
I don’t know what political party the people of that community belong to and unless Mr. Fusion does he needs to stick a blue whale in it.
The most likely outcome of what these people did was what they got and that is negligent homicide. They didn’t mean to kill him. They just weren’t paying any attention to the most likely results of their choices.
I’m not sure that the Feds can prevent events like this better than local governments can. I do know everything they touch costs more most likely because somebody is getting huge pay checks.
It is amazing we work all of our lives just to be forced into house. The reason, well, do someone else can exploit all your material objects especially the green in color. He probably lived on a SS check that barely covered his rent combined with food. This is mainly due to greed. The rich get rich and nothing is going to change.Is it too bad the elderly and less forunate peoples have to suffer so some rich bastard can buy a high price tag car and house to prove they are indeed rich. This society is not acceptable to any moral standards. Forgive me for ranting and losing track of my point. I know a few a homeless people, Handicapped people, and sickly who lost their voice because of their standing in this “civilized society.” We just let a 93 guy freeze and trying to justify it. How can anyone think Americans are scum. It’s a mistery.