YOU get hit from behind and charged $200 for emergency services

Oh come on now. A senior citizen gets hit from behind in a traffic accident, someone else calls 911, everybody is OK and the fire department leaves. The person who got hit gets a $200 bill from the fire department and was harassed into paying the bill?

It’s happening more and more frequently. Since the already high taxes are not covering the growing expenses for emergency services, municipalities are getting more and more creative in generating operating income. Car washes, carnivals and selling flowers is not enough.

Cary Feldman’s case is an example of what’s totally wrong in government these days. Feldman get hit and he sent a bill. Looking for more salt in the wound? Since the person who hit Feldman is from in town, he only got a bill for $100.

From CBS 2 in Chicago.

Cary Feldman received one of these bills last summer. He was driving his motor scooter in Chicago Heights when he was struck from behind. He was fine, but someone else called 911, and a fire truck was sent to the scene.

Feldman says it was unnecessary.

“There was no fire, there was no explosion, there was no debris,” Feldman said. “From what I saw, they came, they saw, and they left.”

The fire department then sent him a $200 bill for that fire truck response.

“We’re paying taxes for these services,” said Feldman. “We don’t need to have a second tax.”

What ticks me off about this story is that Cary Feldman was harassed into paying the $200 fee with government employees suggesting they would turn the bill over to a collection agency with no warning if he did not pay up.

“They’ve been harassing me,” said Feldman who tried to get Chicago Heights officials to drop the bill.

He says that instead, officials were, “sending me letters and they even turned it over to collections without sending a final notice.”

He finally paid the $200 to avoid credit rating problems.

“So this is what I call extortion. This is how they get you to pay it,” Feldman said.

The person who hit Feldman was also billed, but only $100, because he lives in the community. Feldman says insurance would not cover the bill.