Michigan Man Freezes to Death

Freezing Death of Michigan Man, 93, Inside Home Sparks Anger


About a week ago there was a Bay City man; Marvin Schur froze to death inside his home. The municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills; he had more than $1,000 in unpaid power bills. His next door neighbors discovered his body on January 17 and inside his house was below 32 degrees. Papers say that a worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at the man’s home on Jan. 13. The device limits the home and blow out like a fuse if it’s passed a set level, than it has to be reset. It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning. The windows were frosted over, icicles hung from a faucet. One of the saddest things of all was that Marvin Schur appeared to have plenty of money, and, in fact, one of the neighbors who entered the home reported seeing cash clipped to a pile of bills on the kitchen table. Schur's nephew suggested the old man's mind may have been slipping. It’s just sad that someone had to go like that. In the winter, you should be able to keep the heat on it’s just too cold out for someone to go without heat when you live in Michigan the worst place to live for winter weather. My mom and I were talking about this the other day and she said something about how the family should sue municipal power company. I believe that they should of at least came by his house and let him know that he needed to pay his bill and explain it to him again what was going to happen. He is a 93 year old man and probably didn’t remember that he had to pay his bill.

I also recently read this article and I was particularly confused because I have a frined who cant afford to pay her heating bill, but because of the weather the company cannot turn the gas off. I'm sure theres a difference between my friends gas powered furnace and whatever Schur had. The electric company definetly had no right in turning this mans power off. And I also remember in the article the owner of the company places the blame on the neighbors who didn't see that he needed help early enough which is completely stupid of him.

This was a tragedy on so many levels. I personally think that it is unforgivable to put a limiting device on a home without letting the occupant know what it is and how it works. I realize that the point is to make it inconvenient so that a person realizes that they using X amount of power.

Bay City Electric's Light and Power representative stated that neighbors should watch neighbors. While this is true to some extent, the responsiblity for the widowers death lies squarely on the shoulders of the power company in my opinion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28858971/

Like eveyone else that heard the news of 93-year-old Marvin Shur, it was very devastating and disturbing to hear. Unfortunately, everyone is playing the blame game. It is a culmination of errors. For instance everyone keeps saying if "they" would have gone to his door and told him what they were going to do and have him sign something that would have eleviated the problem. Well, not necessaryily if Mr. Shur was in the beginning stages of Alzheimers because he may not have even remember anyone coming to his door, on the otherhand that would have taken BC Electric Co. off the hook because of the signature they obtained. But on the other hand, if they would have gone to his door and asked if he had the funds to pay his bill, he may have been able to remember he had the money to give. The City says that "neighbors should look out for neighbors then this would have never happened". Well that only works to a certain extent. The article also states that he had no family i.e. wife or children (his wife passed away 2 years prior and no kids). Some articles say he had a nephew. The fact that his bill went unpaid for four months should have sent a red flag to BCE because normally they don't let you go past 2 months without a notice and for his bill to be that high there may have been a problem with his meter so they should have checked on that long ago. This also means that no one, in particular the nephew unless he doesn't live close, but still, checked on him or made sure his steps and driveway were shoveled, he had groceries in his house or just plain check to see if he was okay. I know if that was my relative living alone at his age knowing he had the beginning stages of Alzheimers that he should have been checked on more frequently. Lastly, the person that put the limiter on his meter states he "was doing his job". Well there should have been someone to have stepped up and stopped that. Instead of just putting that limiter on, they should have called stating someone would come out if he had the means to pay or setup payment arrangements and actually done this. There are times when "just doing your job" because that is what you are told to do no matter what the circumstances are and finding a way to resolve the problem, i.e. no electricity = no heat with single digit degree weather. I am sure that worker didn't realize to what extent his actions would have caused Mr. Shur. I am definetly not saying that we are above paying our bills, but in certain circumstances things can be worked out. People are falling on hard times but are still willing to pay their bills just with extensions. In this day and age, what happened to Mr. Shur should have never occurred or anyone for that matter. We need to stop and look at the big picture before we "just do our jobs."