November 30th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Did you hear about this?
A 74 year old blind woman was sent a letter by the city of Attleboro, Massachusetts, stating that a lien would be placed on her home if she didn’t pay her overdue water bill.
The worst thing about this? Her overdue bill was only 1 cent … yeah, that’s right. She owed the city one penny so they were about to put a lien on her home if she didn’t pay up!
Geez, I wonder how hard the city of Attleboro is on real criminals!
Isn’t that disgusting?
Eileen Wilbur told the Sun Chronicle of Attleboro that the letter sent her blood pressure soaring.
City Collector Debora Marcoccio says the letter was among 2,000 sent out.
She says a computer automatically prints letters for accounts with an overdue balance, and they are not reviewed by staff before being mailed, she said.
The letter warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the overdue bill is not paid by Dec. 10.
The charge was from the previous fiscal year, which ran from July 2007 to July 2008.
Wilbur’s daughter, Rose Brederson, who discovered the bill in her mother’s mail, called the situation “ridiculous.”
But she said her mother, who has lived in the home since 1959, would likely end up paying the penny.
I think the city needs to review their billing process! Imagine being threated to have a lien on your home for a 1 cent bill!
March 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Did you know that last year the Texas State Legislature passed a bill allowing the blind to hunt? Of course they must bring a sighted companion along and also use a laser guide to aide their shot.
Apparently when using the laser guide all one has to do is point the laser where they think the animal is and there sighted companion can tell them if their shot is lined up. I’m not sure how that’s all that different than just trusting the sighted companions eyes …
I guess as long as it’s not the blind leading the blind …
October 28th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Did you hear about the man, Ronald Evano, that was sentenced last month to more than five years in jail due to his role in a fraud scheme in which he and his wife are said to have intentionally eaten glass fragments in order to collect more than $200,000 in compensation from a multi-state insurance company?
Evano was also ordered to repay as much as $340,000 for his role in defrauding insurers, grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals and doctors in the scheme in which both he and his wife claimed that there was glass in the food that they had eaten.
The couple filed fraudulent insurance claims worth more than $200,000 and incurred more than $100,000 in unpaid medical bills between 1997 and 2005 across several states.
Evano plead guilty to charges in federal court to 20 counts of mail fraud, conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft, and making false statements on health care matters and social security fraud.
Evano’s wife, Mary, remains a fugitive. An arrest warrant has been issued for Mary Evano listing the same charges that her husband plead guilty to in August.
Evano asked the judge for mercy, saying in court that he and his wife are members of the minority Roma community, and needed the money to pay for dowries and other costs associated with the marriages of his sons under cultural practices.
