Man Sets Himself on Fire Over Debt Collection Actions

A New Jersey man was in critical condition at a Livingston hospital after he set himself ablaze at a Rent-A-Center store in protest of the volume of late payment notices and collection calls he’d received from the chain, according to local media reports.

Emilio Saladriagas, a 62 year-old man from Newark, went to the Rent-A-Center in Bloomington Tuesday to speak to a manager about the collection letters and calls he had been receiving regarding missed payments on furniture rentals. When he was told a manager was not available, he doused himself with lighter fluid and lit the fluid with a cigarette lighter, self-immolating in front of customers and employees of the store.

As of Tuesday evening, Saladriagas was in critical condition. Police said that he will not be charged with a crime because store surveillance appeared to show he intended to hurt no one but himself.

"We don't know if he had mental health issues or what sparked it," Bloomfield Police Capt. Chris Goul told The Star-Ledger. "Employees said he'd always been a nice man."

Rent-A-Center (Nasdaq: RCII) has been accused in the past of unfair business practices concerning its credit granting and debt collection tactics. In 2006, the state of California reached a $7.75 million settlement with the company for what regulators said was a failure to “disclose the true cost of its rent-to-own program.”