US judge sentenced man to “INDEFINITE INCARCERATION” until he came up with $300 toward a lumber yard debt!

In jail for being in debt – You committed no crime, but an officer is knocking on your door. More Minnesotans are surprised to find themselves being locked up over debts.

in-jail-for-being-in-debt_-deborah-poplawski
Deborah Poplawski still gets angry about her arrest in Minneapolis last year over an old $250 debt. During her night in jail, she worried about abandoning her 15-year-old dog, Nina, in her apartment.


As a sheriff’s deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer’s purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother.

No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense — missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. “They have no right to do this to me,” said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. “Not for a stupid credit card.”

It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

Not every warrant results in an arrest, but in Minnesota many debtors spend up to 48 hours in cells with criminals. Consumer attorneys say such arrests are increasing in many states, including Arkansas, Arizona and Washington, driven by a bad economy, high consumer debt and a growing industry that buys bad debts and employs every means available to collect.

Whether a debtor is locked up depends largely on where the person lives, because enforcement is inconsistent from state to state, and even county to county.

In Illinois and southwest Indiana, some judges jail debtors for missing court-ordered debt payments. In extreme cases, people stay in jail until they raise a minimum payment. In January, a judge sentenced a Kenney, Ill., man “to indefinite incarceration” until he came up with $300 toward a lumber yard debt.

“The law enforcement system has unwittingly become a tool of the debt collectors,” said Michael Kinkley, an attorney in Spokane, Wash., who has represented arrested debtors. “The debt collectors are abusing the system and intimidating people, and law enforcement is going along with it.”

How often are debtors arrested across the country? No one can say. No national statistics are kept, and the practice is largely unnoticed outside legal circles. “My suspicion is the debt collection industry does not want the world to know these arrests are happening, because the practice would be widely condemned,” said Robert Hobbs, deputy director of the National Consumer Law Center in Boston.

Debt collectors defend the practice, saying phone calls, letters and legal actions aren’t always enough to get people to pay.

“Admittedly, it’s a harsh sanction,” said Steven Rosso, a partner in the Como Law Firm of St. Paul, which does collections work. “But sometimes, it’s the only sanction we have.”

Taxpayers foot the bill for arresting and jailing debtors. In many cases, Minnesota judges set bail at the amount owed.

In Minnesota, judges have issued arrest warrants for people who owe as little as $85 — less than half the cost of housing an inmate overnight. Debtors targeted for arrest owed a median of $3,512 in 2009, up from $2,201 five years ago.

Those jailed for debts may be the least able to pay.

“It’s just one more blow for people who are already struggling,” said Beverly Yang, a Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation staff attorney who has represented three Illinois debtors arrested in the past two months. “They don’t like being in court. They don’t have cars. And if they had money to pay these collectors, they would.”

The collection machine

The laws allowing for the arrest of someone for an unpaid debt are not new.

What is new is the rise of well-funded, aggressive and centralized collection firms, in many cases run by attorneys, that buy up unpaid debt and use the courts to collect.

Three debt buyers — Unifund CCR Partners, Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. and Debt Equities LLC — accounted for 15 percent of all debt-related arrest warrants issued in Minnesota since 2005, court data show. The debt buyers also file tens of thousands of other collection actions in the state, seeking court orders to make people pay.

The debts — often five or six years old — are purchased from companies like cellphone providers and credit card issuers, and cost a few cents on the dollar. Using automated dialing equipment and teams of lawyers, the debt-buyer firms try to collect the debt, plus interest and fees. A firm aims to collect at least twice what it paid for the debt to cover costs. Anything beyond that is profit.

Portfolio Recovery Associates of Norfolk, Va., a publicly traded debt buyer with the biggest profits and market capitalization, earned $44 million last year on $281 million in revenue — a 16 percent net margin. Encore Capital Group, another large debt buyer based in San Diego, had a margin last year of 10 percent. By comparison, Wal-Mart’s profit margin was 3.5 percent.

Todd Lansky, chief operating officer at Resurgence Financial LLC, a Northbrook, Ill.-based debt buyer, said firms like his operate within the law, which says people who ignore court orders can be arrested for contempt. By the time a warrant is issued, a debtor may have been contacted up to 12 times, he said.

“This is a last-ditch effort to say, ‘Look, just show up in court,'” he said.

Go to court — or jail

At 9:30 a.m. on a recent weekday morning, about a dozen people stood in line at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.

Nearly all of them had received court judgments for not paying a delinquent debt. One by one, they stepped forward to fill out a two-page financial disclosure form that gives creditors the information they need to garnish money from their paychecks or bank accounts.

This process happens several times a week in Hennepin County. Those who fail to appear can be held in contempt and an arrest warrant is issued if a collector seeks one. Arrested debtors aren’t officially charged with a crime, but their cases are heard in the same courtroom as drug users.

Greg Williams, who is unemployed and living on state benefits, said he made the trip downtown on the advice of his girlfriend who knew someone who had been arrested for missing such a hearing.

“I was surprised that the police would waste time on my petty debts,” said Williams, 45, of Minneapolis, who had a $5,773 judgment from a credit card debt. “Don’t they have real criminals to catch?”

Few debtors realize they can land in jail simply for ignoring debt-collection legal matters. Debtors also may not recognize the names of companies seeking to collect old debts. Some people are contacted by three or four firms as delinquent debts are bought and sold multiple times after the original creditor writes off the account.

“They may think it’s a mistake. They may think it’s a scam. They may not realize how important it is to respond,” said Mary Spector, a law professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in Dallas.

A year ago, Legal Aid attorneys proposed a change in state law that would have required law enforcement officials to let debtors fill out financial disclosure forms when they are apprehended rather than book them into jail. No legislator introduced the measure.

Joy Uhlmeyer, who was arrested on her way home from spending Easter with her mother, said she defaulted on a $6,200 Chase credit card after a costly divorce in 2006. The firm seeking payment was Resurgence Financial, the Illinois debt buyer. Uhlmeyer said she didn’t recognize the name and ignored the notices.

Uhlmeyer walked free after her nephew posted $2,500 bail. It took another $187 to retrieve her car from the city impound lot. Her 86-year-old mother later asked why she didn’t call home after leaving Duluth. Not wanting to tell the truth, Uhlmeyer said her car broke down and her cell phone died.

“The really maddening part of the whole experience was the complete lack of information,” she said. “I kept thinking, ‘If there was a warrant out for my arrest, then why in the world wasn’t I told about it?'”

Jailed for $250

One afternoon last spring, Deborah Poplawski, 38, of Minneapolis was digging in her purse for coins to feed a downtown parking meter when she saw the flashing lights of a Minneapolis police squad car behind her. Poplawski, a restaurant cook, assumed she had parked illegally. Instead, she was headed to jail over a $250 credit card debt.

Less than a month earlier, she learned by chance from an employment counselor that she had an outstanding warrant. Debt Equities, a Golden Valley debt buyer, had sued her, but she says nobody served her with court documents. Thanks to interest and fees, Poplawski was now on the hook for $1,138.

Though she knew of the warrant and unpaid debt, “I wasn’t equating the warrant with going to jail, because there wasn’t criminal activity associated with it,” she said. “I just thought it was a civil thing.”

She spent nearly 25 hours at the Hennepin County jail.

A year later, she still gets angry recounting the experience. A male inmate groped her behind in a crowded elevator, she said. Poplawski also was ordered to change into the standard jail uniform — gray-white underwear and orange pants, shirt and socks — in a cubicle the size of a telephone booth. She slept in a room with 12 to 16 women and a toilet with no privacy. One woman offered her drugs, she said.

The next day, Poplawski appeared before a Hennepin County district judge. He told her to fill out the form listing her assets and bank account, and released her. Several weeks later, Debt Equities used this information to seize funds from her bank account. The firm didn’t return repeated calls seeking a comment.

“We hear every day about how there’s no money for public services,” Poplawski said. “But it seems like the collectors have found a way to get the police to do their work.”

Threat depends on location

A lot depends on where a debtor lives or is arrested, as Jamie Rodriguez, 41, a bartender from Brooklyn Park, discovered two years ago.

Deputies showed up at his house one evening while he was playing with his 5-year-old daughter, Nicole. They live in Hennepin County, where the Sheriff’s Office has enough staff to seek out people with warrants for civil violations.

If Rodriquez lived in neighboring Wright County, he could have simply handed the officers a check or cash for the amount owed. If he lived in Dakota County, it’s likely no deputy would have shown up because the Sheriff’s Office there says it lacks the staff to pursue civil debt cases.

Knowing that his daughter and wife were watching from the window, Rodriguez politely asked the deputies to drive him around the block, out of sight of his family, before they handcuffed him. The deputies agreed.

“No little girl should have to see her daddy arrested,” said Rodriguez, who spent a night in jail.

“If you talk to 15 different counties, you’ll find 15 different approaches to handling civil warrants,” said Sgt. Robert Shingledecker of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office. “Everything is based on manpower.”

Local police also can enforce debt-related warrants, but small towns and some suburbs often don’t have enough officers.

The Star Tribune’s comparison of warrant and booking data suggests that at least 1 in 6 Minnesota debtors at risk for arrest actually lands in jail, typically for eight hours. The exact number of such arrests isn’t known because the government doesn’t consistently track what happens to debtor warrants.

“There are no standards here,” said Gail Hillebrand, a senior attorney with the Consumers Union in San Francisco. “A borrower who lives on one side of the river can be arrested while another one goes free. It breeds disrespect for the law.”

Haekyung Nielsen, 27, of Bloomington, said police showed up at her house on a civil warrant two weeks after she gave birth through Caesarean section. A debt buyer had sent her court papers for an old credit-card debt while she was in the hospital; Nielsen said she did not have time to respond.

Her baby boy, Tyler, lay in the crib as she begged the officer not to take her away.

“Thank God, the police had mercy and left me and my baby alone,” said Nielsen, who later paid the debt. “But to send someone to arrest me two weeks after a massive surgery that takes most women eight weeks to recover from was just unbelievable.”

The second surprise

Many debtors, like Robert Vee, 36, of Brooklyn Park, get a second surprise after being arrested — their bail is exactly the amount of money owed.

Hennepin County automatically sets bail at the judgment amount or $2,500, whichever is less. This policy was adopted four years ago in response to the high volume of debtor default cases, say court officials.

Some judges say the practice distorts the purpose of bail, which is to make sure people show up in court.

“It’s certainly an efficient way to collect debts, but it’s also highly distasteful,” said Hennepin County District Judge Jack Nordby. “The amount of bail should have nothing to do with the amount of the debt.”

Judge Robert Blaeser, chief of the county court’s civil division, said linking bail to debt streamlines the process because judges needn’t spend time setting bail.

“It’s arbitrary,” he conceded. “The bigger question is: Should you be allowed to get an order from a court for someone to be arrested because they owe money? You’ve got to remember there are people who have the money but just won’t pay a single penny.”

If friends or family post a debtor’s bail, they can expect to kiss the money goodbye, because it often ends up with creditors, who routinely ask judges for the bail payment.

Vee, a highway construction worker, was arrested one afternoon in February while driving his teenage daughter from school to their home in Brooklyn Park. As he was being cuffed, Vee said his daughter, who has severe asthma, started hyperventilating from the stress.

“All I kept thinking about was whether she was all right and if she was using her [asthma] inhaler,” he said.

From the Hennepin County jail, he made a collect call to his landlord, who promised to bring the bail. It was $1,875.06, the exact amount of a credit card debt.

Later, Vee was reunited with his distraught daughter at home. “We hugged for a long time, and she was bawling her eyes out,” he said.

He still has unpaid medical and credit card bills and owes about $40,000 on an old second mortgage. The sight of a squad car in his rearview mirror is all it takes to set off a fresh wave of anxiety.

“The question always crosses my mind: ‘Are the cops going to arrest me again?'” he said. “So long as I’ve got unpaid bills, the threat is there.”

By CHRIS SERRES and GLENN HOWATT , Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: June 9, 2010 – 7:58 AM

Source: Star Tribune

22 thoughts on “US judge sentenced man to “INDEFINITE INCARCERATION” until he came up with $300 toward a lumber yard debt!”

  1. I wish this would happen to me because then i would file a law suit first against the city and policeman for fause arrest and fause impisomment and then i would file a law suit against the company that had me arrested. It is a cival matter to owe money not a crime ans you can not be arrested for owing a credit card company money if you could 97% of the people in the USA would be in jail and if a judge put some one in jail as in this case he should be in jail and the only reason is is not from the picture he is a nigger and does not have a credit card.
    I have heard some studip thing but this has to be the most stupid and any policeman that arrest some one for this is just a stupid.

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  2. And we wonder why it take so long for a rapist or murder to go to court. The courts are booked with collection companies.

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  3. People are missing court appointed payments. If you blow off a payment of the debt you incurred yourself than you deserve this. If you can’t make a payment than call and try and work something out. Too many people think they don’t have to pay. How is writing a bad check to a store for a tv “which is considered theft) any different than maxing out a credit card and not being able to pay. Maybe this will deter people from using them.

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  4. People need to start throwing these judges out of office through recalls or at the voting booth if they continue to use taxpayer funds to go after debtors in these civil cases. The best thing for a debtor to do in these situations is to consult with a bankruptcy attorney and BAM! have the judgment tossed. In the US we shouldn’t have to fear going to jail for not paying a bill. Yes, one must do everything they can to repay a legitimate claim, but there are laws regarding due process on our side.

    These attorney run collection companies need to be heavily regulated. It is unfortunate but true that most of these debt collection agencies are working in tandem with elected officials to make sure the law is on their side. They remind me of the old west and crooked marshalls or bounty hunters.

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  5. Having to stay overnight in jail may be a bit extreme but something has to be done about people who don’t pay thier bills. It all boils down to responsibility. If you run up a bill because you just had to have that new home,car, boat or whatever then take the responsibility to pay for it.
    If you have an unforeseen medical exspense or loose your job then be an adult and contact your creditors and explain your situation. Most creditors will do what they can to work with you. DON’T ignore the collection notices you receive in the mail. Follow up and see what it is about. If it turns out to be nothing then no big deal. Better to have wasted a couple of hours than end up in jail because you are to lazy to make some phone calls.
    This ideal that Americans can go out and run up hughe debt is part of the reason our country is in the financial shape it is. We complain about the politicians doing this same thing but then we also act irresponsibly. Reform has to start somewhere.
    Grow up Americans, take responsibility and don’t expect someonelse to take care of your debt.

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  6. Debtors prison has been outlawed in this country for well over a century. These arrests are nothing more than sorry attempts by sorry companies to skirt the spirit and implications of the law…and btw, Justic, you’re a God damn idiot!

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  7. Any judge who is willing to sentence ANYONE to “indefinite incarceration” has effectively suspened habeus corpus and should be removed from the bench immediately and permanently. I am most amazed that I can’t find a follow-up story detailing an investigation for judicial misconduct.

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  8. Notice how the judges name was ommitted? This is due to a corrupt media as well as an intrusive government unchecked by those employed to do so. That judges name is public information and this article mentions nothing. So… you are just a guilty for complacency and conflict.

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  9. Thank Bush and his bankruptcy laws he implemented on the poor leaving the rich free to remain untouched and bailed out.

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  10. I am really kind of sickened at how ignorant people are.

    These people are being arrested for failing to appear in court. It’s that simple.

    It has nothing to do with their ability or willingness to pay their debts, but rather their willingness to ditch court. You ditch court, especially repeatedly, a bench warrant will be issued. This is not news.

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  11. As someone who works in collections, all you have to do is call and work something out, making any payment is better than nothing. Yes going to jail is extreme, I call people everyday to try to work things out and get cursed out cause they owe the money. Some people I speak with honestly don’t have it due to unforeseen things in life. But to look at a credit report and see a mortgage 3 and 4 payment behind but the BMW is up to date gets me upset. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told to due what I have to do, and then get called back once their check are being garnished trying to work it out. If you signed your name on the line be an adult and pay the bill and don’t make excuses.

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  12. I hate to go against the prevailing sentiment, but the people are not being arrested because of their debts. They are being arrested because they ignored a court order to pay their debts. They are in contempt of the court. All they need to do is show up. Look, since when is ok to not accept personal responsibility for your obligations. The story made repeated references to the fact that the people knew they owed money and they chose not to pay. That’s theft, if not in the legal sense, in the moral. I don’t care what you think it is, but they took money from somebody else, promising to pay, and then bailing out. Why should they not be held accountable? I find it interesting how every single person mentioned in this story paid what they owed after they were arrested. Why should people be able to lie and cheat companies and other people? (BTW, I know people love to rail against big, bad companies, but most businesses in the US are small businesses. Most employees work for small business, not large companies. Do you think small businesses could afford to float large numbers of deadbeats?) What do you think this costs people who pay their debts when these people do not? If companies could not collect from them, they would be forced to charge “honest” people more. The stuff these people stole doesn’t come free. How do you expect companies to survive or to provide service if large numbers of people steal from them without recourse? Without this final line in the sand, companies and the general (honest) public would be worse off, which is why these states have these laws. If you thought it through, it’s just ignorant to take the side of these people (all of whom obviously, when it came down to it, could have and did – thanks to the law – pay).

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  13. Several of these people claim they were not even served first. Also, think about this, you know you owe Chase or American Express or some business or medical a certain amount. Maybe you are even paying them as you can, but it is less than you owe. Then some company you have never heard of calls you up demanding payment. Perhaps you verify they are real and offer to make payments, but they want the whole amount right then.

    I had a situation where a medical bill went to collections before insurance paid due to errors in how our local hospital filed, even though I had fully paid my copay and the rest was officially “in dispute.” This company I had never heard of demanded payment over the phone which would have given them full access to my credit or debit card and they did not even want to tell me what it was for until I threatened report them to police. When I called my insurance company I found the hospital had still not filed a correction. I had two situations (same hospital and a nursing home) refused to file with my elderly parent’s supplimental insurance, in hopes of collecting from the family first, and threatening us with turning it over to collections. In both cases it took threatening them with a lawyer to get them to file for insurance. Insurance told me it is actually common for them to run into this, sometimes with it actually going to collections without ever going to insurance. Then they file for insurance and you have to fight them to get your money back.

    Also, many credit card companies are dramatically raising people’s rates, sometimes more than doubling their payments making it impossible for people already on the edge to pay. Many women who get divorces claim their exes will leave them holding the bag for an entire credit card bill that is joint and these companies then go after them for the whole amount. The irony is, people with really large debts file bankruptcy and often pay only a portion of these huge debts, while poorer people with smaller debts may end up with huge collection fees added on.

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  14. History has a way of repeating itself. With the Current system and the people that use it to pray on the majority(99% of Poor and Middle Class) when they are a minority(1% Rich). Sadly the 1% fails to remember The Bastille when the poorer Majority removed the rich 1% by beheading them for inhumane treatment of the populus as People starved or went hungry, Worked long hours for little money which was taken for taxes or rent by the 1%, and the volume it spoke on oppression by the minority. Only one rule when dealing with a mob. The Mob Rules. When that Fatal occurance calls down the reckoning of the masses tired of Oppression Nature of the 1%. Question is now how to quell it before becomes realization.

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  15. It seems the cops can’t catch real crooks;ie: murderers, rapists, child molesters, crooked cops, crooked lawyers, crooked judges, etc. It is easier pick on people who owe a few hundred bucks to large conglomerates who themselves probably owe to others. With this in mind and the small potatoes debetors being tossed in jail at a record pace, where were the cops and judges when the big conglomerates were stealing from the little guy? These people stole money in the hundreds of millions; ie Enron, etc, and very few went to jail let alone forced to repay their debts. The little guy is again taking it up the wazzoo for the faults of the upper eshelons again. Cops should stick to the catching real ciminals, they have a million excuses why they can’t, probably too busy chasing Beaver Cleaver for not paying for his Archie comic!

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  16. Reading this article makes me ashamed of what society has become, and is a prime example of the 1 step forward three steps back we are taking in America.I mean, high taxes, no representation, and debtors prison? how is a guy supposed to get the money pay if he is in prison until he pays? there are plenty of other issues in this country, and while I agree people should pay there debt, to be jailed over a debt is outrageous. these debt collectors charge unreasonably high fees for being late or over limit, and then if they decide to drop you or sell your account it takes months and months before you hear from the new lender, all the while fees are piling up and up. they are buying these accounts for pennies on the dollar, and the original companies are writing these debts off and receiving tax breaks for doing so. Then, you are harassed by a company that paid in most cases less than $50 on your account, and are asking for 30 times that as repayment. They threaten people with illegal action, and are as vague as can be when you ask anything about the debt, and in most cases flat out rude. Yet somehow they get the local government to lend their policing services to them to help collect their unreasonable profits.Seems ironic that in a state like Illinois which is 14 billion in debt, and can not pay bills that officials would allow this kind of behavior. Seems to be a little wheel greasing to me. We now have the revenue generating red light cameras that officials claim is ” about the safety of the residents and drivers, and not about the revenue” yet they have projections of income and have already budgeted this into spending… seems like that revenue is playing a small role. officials are becoming more and more corrupt with each passing day, and this is evident. Ask a cop or detective how hard it is to get a warrant for a known criminal. They will tell you every I better be dotted and every T crossed, evidence better be blatant and rock solid, and the judge better be in a good mood or a warrant will not be issued. We wouldn’t want to offend a criminal or maybe violate his rights, but a regular working class Joe’s rights are placed second to the huge profits of these collection offices….what a fu%@ing joke…Kind of makes me wish I was an Illegal citizen…. Work for cash and not pay taxes, collect government benefits for my illegal kids and wife, free health care, and if I get caught doing anything they put me on an air conditioned bus back to my home country so I can come across again tomorrow. How long are we expected to go like this. racial tensions are high, people are stressed and overworked, government is out of fu&%$ng control, and there is no end in site to the amount of money that they are determined to stripe from our hands at every turn. I cant fish without a license, keep a trout without a stamp, hunt without a permit, own a gun without a license, drive without a license plate sticker, I also need a village sticker. I cant add on to my own house without a permit, I even need a permit to have a speaking rally. I pay 20 plus percent taxes from my income, and 10.5 percent for sales tax in Cook County Illinois. My property taxes are unbelievable and rising yearly. My health insurance cost is extremely inflated, and I have to listen daily on the news about Illegals rallying ( while I am busy at work ) demanding rights and the gov is listening to them. This country is out of control, and spiraling downward fast!As long as the little guys keep taking it, the officials will keep pushing. There has to be some summit somewhere where the leaders of this country meet each year and sit in disbelief of how far we are letting them push us. I say the pushing stops now, and either they start doing things for the interest of the people, or get prepared to be removed from office.

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  17. I agree with Mike wholehartedly. I’m in debt up to the wazoo, and reading this article gives me the shivers. I’m ashamed to be a citizen of Chicago, Cook County and Illinois because of the supposed ‘leaders’ that we elected into office eventually became greedy crooks. I’m looking forward to the day when the shoe drops and Mayor Richard J. is endited. I said this many times, “Eventually there will be 2 types of people in this country: ones that are in jail and the others that are guarding them!” –Ray

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  18. You are better off actually committing crimes, such as id theft. She has over 40 grand in judgments. Uses her daughters identity to get credit cards, yet FBI ignores it.
    google brief history of an id theif to see how easy she got a way with it.

    Laws are only for honest people.

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  19. Well I once had a signature loan through my bank to establish more credit, It was only for $5,000 dollars and I only used $2,000 of it. I kept with the payments of $78.00 per month per my contract. Well I paid all of it back and about a month later. I went to the bank to see why my bank card was not working. Found it locked during normal business hours and no one around. Then I noticed there was a notice stating that that bank nation wide went under. I was like WTF, how do I get my money. Well about two weeks went bye and I got a check in the mail for what was in my account, but I could not find anyone that could tell me about the signature loan.
    Well about 5 years later I get a letter in the mail stating that I owed a creditor a debt of $15,000 dollars. I was like WTF, who is this and what are they talking about. So I tried calling the number on the letter just to get, well we can not find any record of this info, possibly its been sold to another creditor. Well another 3 years later, I found out a bank had tried to sue me for a unpaid Debt. I only found this out though looking up my name online and found that due to they could not locate me they dropped the suit. I found they were trying to get $25,000 of un-paid debt. So I call this bank and find it had to due with the signature loan from my former bank 8 years ago. I asked them how could I owe $25,000 for a signature loan of only $5,000 that was paid in full. They stated there records show that I used all $5,000 and with interests and other fees it was now $25,000. Well I told the person I still have my records, receipts and payment statements showing that I paid this off a long time ago. I got a fax number from the person and faxed everything I had to them. Well a few weeks go bye and I get a new notice that now they are wanting to discuses payment options with me for now $30,000. I recall the bank up and asked for the person I spoke to several week ago even gave the name of the person, I get I don’t know that person might work out of a different office, but I will not be able to connect you to that person. Due to I don’t know that person is you spoke with, but how can I help you. So I go thought the possess of explaining everything again and that I sent the proof in that the debt they are trying to collect if false and wrong. Well the person stated he has nothing showing I sent anything in and too refax everything. So I do and call the next day, again don’t know who you spoke with and no we don’t have any proof you sent anything in. So I ask for an address to send copies of what I have to show this is a false debt. They give me one and I send in the info, again they say they never got it. I did this 6 times before I told them they could go jump off a cliff. They stated they would take action and take me to court. Well still waiting.
    Long story short, it does not matter. These people are out of control and if they have the courts and police helping them collect debts, I’m sorry its wrong.

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  20. Government of the Corporation, by the Corporation, for the Corporation, how does this surprise you? The American people are incredible suckers. Corporations run this country. Just look at how the Big Investment bankers were saved by the government. The government kicked in BILLIONS of dollars to save those Corporations. Those Corporations were INSOLVENT because or their RECKLESS practices. Sure, a few execs lost their jobs and walked away with a measely 10 million dollars.

    But if you are an average American scraping to get by and you owe one of those corporations a few hundred dollars they will throw you in jail. And the American people simply turn on the TV and watch “reality” TV. Nothing important going on in the world- just numb your minds.

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  21. The credit cad companies are STILL making money. All the outrageous penalty fees and higher interest rates added are finally tax-deductable in the end. For exapmle, if you had a $1,000 debt left unpaid for 2 or 3 years at 20% interest + penalties maaybe you would owe $ 3,000. They take that figure and write it off as a bad debt, THEN they can collect $ 3,000 ELSEWARE, TAX FREE !!

    Reply

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