A woman says a funeral home’s debt collector threatened to dig her deceased daughter’s body up and hang it from a tree unless she paid what she owed for the funeral service. That’s when she started recording the calls, capturing such things as, “We’re going to have your dog arrested, we’re going to shoot him, and we’re going to eat him,” and, “Are you going to pay this bill or not or am I going to have to kill you?”

Threats of violence are definite breaches of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Armed with those recordings, the woman could go sue the debt collector in small claims court and collect statutory damages.

Reached for comment, the debt collection agency told KMOV that the recordings were “suspect” and said they sounded like an “unfortunate communication breakdown.” They pledged to investigate the incident and said all their employees are given a copy of the FDCPA and are required to follow it.

Belleville woman irate after vulgar phone calls from debt collectors [KMOV] (Thanks to Bill!)