The truth of the matter here is that unless someone paid this man's past due and current bill, his heat would have been shut off anyway. period.

TIP If you don't have heat in the winter months or your heat is about to be shut off, here's what to do. Go down to the Salvation Army, St. Vinnie's or even a resale shop and pick up a good telephone answering machine. You should have one anyway by now to deal with those pesky bill collectors. Call a Realtor, put your house up for sale and ask for a little more than it's worth. Tell your realtor you won't be living in the house while its up for sale and there isn't a phone where you'll be staying but you will be in and out of the house a lot mov...

The truth of the matter here is that unless someone paid this man's past due and current bill, his heat would have been shut off anyway. period.

TIP If you don't have heat in the winter months or your heat is about to be shut off, here's what to do. Go down to the Salvation Army, St. Vinnie's or even a resale shop and pick up a good telephone answering machine. You should have one anyway by now to deal with those pesky bill collectors. Call a Realtor, put your house up for sale and ask for a little more than it's worth. Tell your realtor you won't be living in the house while its up for sale and there isn't a phone where you'll be staying but you will be in and out of the house a lot moving things. You can be still be reached at your home phone, just leave a message. The realtor will contact the utility company to leave the heat on. At some point you'll sign an agreement saying the utility company will be paid out of the money you get for the house. If by chance you do sell the house at an inflated price, you might just want to move, if not, you simply don't sign the papers at the closing ( you've changed your mind ). At some point the heating company will come after you for the money, but remember, the idea here is to get through the winter without freezing to death. Well worth it, believe me.

@chestnut501 - Life is life - I don't think that anyones life is worth more than others. Yes, we have jobs where death is a possibility such as the police dept., fire dept., etc. but these jobs are filled with people whose eyes are wide opened and have the understanding that there are risk involved working these jobs. According to the existing system if a person is convicted of a hate crime he will receive a more severe sentence associated with the hate crime. If somebody say, killed you or me, why should they get a lessor sentence for the same crime. Is that not a product of discrimination? Is that poor old mans life that just died because some agency took it upon themselves to turn his ele...

@chestnut501 - Life is life - I don't think that anyones life is worth more than others. Yes, we have jobs where death is a possibility such as the police dept., fire dept., etc. but these jobs are filled with people whose eyes are wide opened and have the understanding that there are risk involved working these jobs. According to the existing system if a person is convicted of a hate crime he will receive a more severe sentence associated with the hate crime. If somebody say, killed you or me, why should they get a lessor sentence for the same crime. Is that not a product of discrimination? Is that poor old mans life that just died because some agency took it upon themselves to turn his electricity off. They may as well have taken a gun and shot him. Yea, I know that has nothing to do with the subject that we are talking about. that old man and his mindset was from a time that he didn't know what to do because within himself he could not and would not complain. He did the only thing he knew how to do, and that was freeze to death. My heart really goes out to that poor old man since I read about it. I hope whoever is responsible for his death is held accountable for their actions and it is not swept under the carpet. Somehow I feel within that it will eventually got lost in the shuffle. They are not saying, oh what a terrible thing that has happened but somehow it just slipped through the cracks. 'BULLSHIT' o.k, I'm done. Sorry for dragging out so long. Thanks for listening to my fingers, they have a mind of their own.