According to a recent study done by the American Academy of Citizen Debt and Collections (AACDC) — the city in the USA with highest percentage of people who do not pay their bills is a little place called Cream Ridge, New Jersey.
“Cream Ridge is about an hour ride to Philadelphia,” said a local merchant who spoke anonymously.
“It’s a town of horse farms and plant nurseries and regular working people. It’s really a nice place but nobody pays their bills and I for one am not the least surprised that it was named as the worst deadbeat filled city in the USA.
“I have a list of debts a mile high and I’m in small claims court at least twice a week trying to collect. The business I’m in gives people credit and eventually even the nicest people screw me over for thousands.
“Just about everybody lives over their head because they have been seduced by the horse racing industry and breeding that once was the hallmark of this town. Now the horse racing is a dying thing and people still live with their dreams of a big house, a racehorse and a team of foxhounds. It’s really pathethic — that’s why the AA meetings are so packed — or at least they should be because these folks drink the hard stuff — it’s a real bad town but it has it’s good side too.”
The merchant who spoke to TheDamienZone talked about the local farmers and horse breeders who pay their bills and keep him afloat, but for the most part the townsfolk always seem to be in small claims court — and they will say anything to get out of paying a bill.
During the course of our interview we sat in on a small claims session. The Judge looked like she was disgusted before the first case even came before her.
A Cream Ridge man was accused of not paying his bill for lawn care services and that he had not paid his monthly bill in 10 months — a debt of $740.00.
The man told the Judge that the lawn care people and their loud engines had scared his prized dogs and caused one of his cats to run out onto a nearby highway where it was struck and killed by a car. When the judge asked him why he continued using the service the man replied that the noise hadn’t caused any problem until the last month. With that said, the Judge than asked why he hadn’t paid the bill for nine months prior to that, the man then produced folder after folder of photos of dandelions and ragweed and time charts and sunrise schedules — he even went so far as to produce a photograph of a red bandanna left hanging on a shrub by one of the workers.
“Oh yeah, Lady,” screamed the angry man. “They were gang members working on my lawn and my children were being exposed to lawn toxins and gang members while you were sitting on your Obama-loving fat ass.”
The Judge was so annoyed that she found the man — who seemed to be a regular — in contempt for vulgarity and mayhem and outwardly lying with previous testimony about noise. She demanded that he pay the full amount plus interest and damages of $122.00. The man then asked for a retrial while he went to get his family appointed consigliere. (Italian Lawyer for the Mob). The man was taken away by State Mental Health authorities where he is being held for a competency hearing.
“That case and that guy are typical of the deadbeats here in Cream Ridge,” said the unidentified merchant. “They are not only deadbeats, but they are drunk and crazy and they’ll say anything to beat a bill. I would rather do business in downtown Detroit than deal with these deadbeats.”
The guy has a point because Detroit is listed as pretty much average for deadbeat debtors — Cream Ridge on the other hand is rated so high above the other cities in the USA by the AACDC that their online chart had to be expanded to a triple digit model just to include it — wow.
