"He basically pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid, poured it all over his body, pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit himself on fire," Bloomfield Police Capt. Chris Goul said.
The man, 62-year-old Emilio Saladriagas, entered the Bloomfield Rent-A-Center location Tuesday and asked to speak to a supervisor about the late payment notices and collection calls, says the Star-Ledger. When a manager was not available, he pulled out the lighter fluid.
Employees doused him with water and he is now in stable condition at the burn unit of a local hospital. He has not been charged with a crime because he did not make "overt or criminal" actions to harm anyone but himself, according to police. The employees are receiving counseling.
"We don't know if he had mental health issues or what sparked it," [police] said. "Employees said he'd always been a nice man."
If you're in debt and having a hard time dealing with the collection calls and notices, there's help available. The first thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (PDF). If you're being harassed, you can sent a letter to the debt collector demanding that they stop contacting you. They do not have the right to keep contacting you simply to try to get you to pay. You can also do a little research and locate some free or low cost legal help in your area. If you have a lawyer, the debt collectors are required to contact the attorney instead of you. If the debt collectors don't follow these rules, you can sue them! Not being able to pay your bills can be a humiliating experience, but don't give up.
Newark man sets himself on fire [Star-Ledger] (Thanks, Andrew!)
]]>The funny part here is that RAC doesn't pay their bills.
I'm a former vendor... I cut 'em off.
]]>My last apartment didn't come with a refrigerator. The tenant bought one and took it with him when he moved. I was in a crunch at the time and didn't have much of an option on where to go (bad credit, not a lot of time to find a better place, etc.).
I didn't have the means to put together a couple hundred dollars for a good refrigerator, and I certainly didn't want to deal with owning one the next time I moved, so I rented one from RAC.
They were really nice about it, I got a brand new unit and everything. But you miss a payment, and the next morning at 8am they start calling your cell, your work, your parents, anyone you put as a reference to get you to pay up. And they don't stop. They called me every hour on the hour for 2 days straight to get me to pay them $20 for the week. I'd gone down the shore on friday which was when my payment was due.
Overall though, I have to say that RAC and Aarons are a humongous scam. They charge you double or triple what the item costs over the course of the rental, and at the end of it you get outdated or cheap crap that you didn't really want in the first place.
]]>How can people be so cruel? Two years ago my 38 year old husband shot himself to death while I was out grocery shopping. The note he left said it was due to money problems. Yes, there were some money problems but nothing we could not have straightened out. No he did not have mental problems-you never know what it will take to push a stressed person over the edge.
My heart goes out to this man and his family.
]]>I pulled out a can of gasoline, doused her, and threw a lit match, saying, "And I think you should stop being on fire."
Then suddenly, I left that beautiful, beautiful alternate reality and said again, "Ma'am, we'll be closing in 5 minutes," and walked away.
(In case you're wondering, she was already pissed that I told her she could not bring her shopping cart from the store down the strip mall into the arcade.)
]]>that is all. *begins long stair climb back to top of tower* XD
]]>@RabbitDinner: And I agree, unless he is mentally ill this is decadent and gratuitous, through and through.
]]>@RabbitDinner: er make a statement, not symbol
]]>@mac-phisto: I apologize for calling you ivory towered. I thought you were implying that I in some way glorified his actions and attitudes like mine were a symbol of decadence. I agree, it's a very powerful way to make a symbol, but actions like this devalue it. Self-serving, attention seeking statements like this are not heroic in the least bit, and serve no purpose
]]>RAC type places are right up there with "pay day advance" or "title loans" in the way they take advantage of people who really can't afford to be taken advantage of. We need a stronger educational curriculum early in public schools.. to teach children how credit words... and how to save.
meanwhile, mr. rent-a-couch here was probably thinking he'd get a guest appearance on jackass out of it, or figured he'd torch the couch instead of letting them take it & forgot to get his fat ass up out of it first. either way, it's sad that our society has come to a point where we set ourselves on fire for stuff.
]]>My how times have changed
]]>I'm just glad I wasn't working that day. My response would have most likely been a WTF face, rub my eyes and walk out the front door muttering "I'm not dealing with this shit".
]]>Telling them to come and retrieve their furniture.
Rent-to-own is a scam ... first late payment, and it becomes just a simply rental with no equity.
The furniture, once you have been using it, is essentially worthless to them, except as a form of rental income. If they can't rent it to you, they will probably have to donate it to charity, or otherwise dispose of it.
Instead of freaking out about rental payments, I would have suggested just telling them to take it ... and maybe offering them a few dollars to buy it outright to save them the cost of sending workers and a truck out to retrieve it.
]]>@mac-phisto: Thank you for the value judgment. Before you go out of earshot back into your ivory tower, know that I was not comparing the statements made by these two individuals, my point was that ostensibly it appeared the same and I wondered perhaps if this man chose to make his statement this way based on this well-known practice
]]>I wonder if this is over a debt that is continuing to mount rather than something he had already surrendered, maybe some piece-of-crap widescreen that he could have lived without.
]]>That is pretty neat, thanks.
]]>"If you have a lawyer, the debt collectors are required to contact the attorney instead of you."
Ha-ha. If I could afford to keep a lawyer on retainer, I probably wouldn't be falling behind in my payments to RAC. Then again, if I were in a position to have a lawyer on call I wouldn't have to be buying stuff from loan sharks.
What do you do if the lawyer comes after you for late payments? Rent some muscle from RAC?
]]>Well said.
]]>@stre:
Just a small point of order: your beneficiaries can collect life insurance if you commit suicide. There is just a period of time that must elapse between the inception of the policy and the suicide. Years ago, it was the case that they wouldn't pay, but a few court cases decided that the families left behind were suffering and ruled that the insurance carriers must pay but the states were entitled to allow for a probation period. If you offed yourself before that period expired then no payout.
This period of time varies by state, but it's generally two years. They figure that this is enough time to get over your suicidal tendencies.
I wonder if rates are higher in Japan because they tend to look at it almost honorably as opposed to here, where it is shamed.
]]>yet another sign of how decadent our society has become.
]]>This is insane. Now people are killing or hurthing themselves becaues they can't pay their bills. Just last week, a woman in Boston committed suicide, faxed the mortgage company a note and them basically that by the time they receive the letter, she would be dead. Her house was facing foreclosure. While I feel terribly sorry for those facing rough times, I have to wonder when will it all stop. Who even rents from rent a center anymore? Their obviously robbing customers!
]]>The collection notice part at the bottom may be inaccurate. Chances are that in this case, Rent-a-center is the original creditor. The FDCPA does not -entirely- apply since they are not legally obligated to stop calling when writing etc. They still cannot call during certain times.
The FDCPA only concerns debt that has been handed to a third-party collector inc. debt that has been bought/sold or a debt collector hired by the lender. Now rent-a-center may have a third-party collector but even then, this is secured debt and if the man who set himself on fire still have possession of the goods, it's really a collateralized loan.
]]>OMG. I can't help myself. I'm going to hazard a guess that the cigarette lighter is what "sparked it"...
please don't bann me.
]]>@Parapraxis: well i'll be damned. i'd always thought that was just a urban legend.
]]>@stre: I know, but the first thing that came to mind was the monk on the cover of the first RATM album. [en.wikipedia.org]
]]>I guess he had a burning desire to speak up.
]]>@RabbitDinner: it's certainly not as isolated as one guy during the vietnam war. it's been a style of protest for quite some time and happened recently in tibet, i believe.
@Parapraxis: i doubt you're going to find anything on the guys heart, because i believe it's an urban myth.
@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: why wouldn't lighter fluid work? i've seen it used in minor stunts that deal with lighting a person on fire. the fire may not last as long, but it would certainly be enough to cause significant damage before you were extinguished. and in japan, the family of someone who commits suicide still gets to collect insurance, unlike in the US, which is another reason suicide rates have gone up.
(p.s. it's "immolate", not "emolument", which is compensation for services, basically a salary. unless you were going for some sort of pun, in which case you're over my head)
The monk's name was Thích Quảng Đức and his heart is kept at Xa Loi Pagoda
]]>found something...
apparently, the heart is considered a holy relic, and is on display in a monastery in vietnam.
I should go visit it...
]]>Stealing from the poor so you don't have to.
]]>This guy sounds like he fails at most everything he does
]]>you know, when they cremated him afterwards (no joke), for some reason his heart wouldn't burn.
now I don't know if it's just an urban legend or not, but I think there's footage sitting around somewhere of the crucible itself showing the heart staying intact.
]]>Well surely when he gets home from the hospital he's gonna have rent-a-center on his machine asking about his late payments.
]]>Reminds me of the buddhist monk (or whatever) who set himself on fire to protest the Vietnam War. Maybe this could be the cover of a new Rage Against the Machine album, if they get around to making one
]]>