Fight Back Against Unfair Debt Collection Practices: Know Your Rights and Protect Yourself from Threats, Lies, and Intimidation

15. Data Minefield

One day at lunchtime, I offered Gary a ride to the supermarket to combine our weekly shopping. He had been talking all morning about food his family’s deli used to make—meatball subs, chicken parmigiana—and it was making me hungry. He bought a pair of crab cakes out of the seafood case and put them on white bread for his own lunch, squirted with mayonnaise packets he had picked up somewhere. He also got a six-pack and punched down two beers in the parking lot while we ate. One I watched him pour right down his throat without stopping, his thick neck bulging with each swallow and the tip of his tongue protruding slightly. He hunched forward so he could tip the can all the way up for the last mouthful. It turned out that it ...