– Bank of America ‘called grieving widow 48 times a day to remind her of husband’s debt’ (Daily Mail, Sep 3, 2011):
Bank of America bombarded a grieving widow with calls up to 48 times a day to remind her that her recently deceased husband had missed a mortgage payment, it is claimed.
Deborah Crabtree, from Honolulu, Hawaii, is suing the bank after she said she was called by debt collectors as often as every 15 minutes including during the wake for her husband.
According to papers filed in Hawaii, Mrs Crabtree told the bank that she would pay the debt as soon as she received her husband’s life insurance pay out, but the bank continued to threaten to foreclose on her home.
The bank told the widow that it was unable to stop the calls until the debt was paid as they were computer generated.
Mrs Crabtree claimed that the calls began the day after her husband died of cancer.
She told the bank that she only had $5,000 cash to hand, which was needed for food and to bury her husband, but debt collectors told her that she must use it to pay them.
Mrs Crabtree said she and her family spent her husband’s wake repeatedly hanging up the phone on calls from the bank.
The bank demanded evidence that her husband was dead, but after this was sent the bank allegedly said it had been lost.
It is also claimed that the bank started to ask to speak to Mrs Crabtree’s husband, even though she repeatedly told them he was dead.