Elderly Man Freezes to Death Over Unpaid Bill

Mich. neighbor finds 93-year-old in house after city cut power
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2009 8:19 AM CST
Elderly Man Freezes to Death Over Unpaid Bill
Neighbors stand outside the home where a 93-year-old man froze to death.   (Bay City Times)

A 93-year-old Michigan man who failed to pay his electricity bill froze to death in his home after the city cut his power supply, the Bay City Times reports. Marvin Schur suffered what a pathologist called "a slow painful death" from hypothermia several days after city workers installed a limiting device on his meter. Schur reportedly owed the city almost $1,100 in electricity bills.

A neighbor found Schur dead 10 days ago. "His furnace was not running. The insides of his windows were full of ice the morning we found him," the neighbor said. "This device is supposed to regulate the amount of electricity he was using but still allow enough power to run the furnace. Obviously, it didn't work."

(More hypothermia stories.)

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