Holy Cow -- Last week there was a carravan of vehicles that pulled up to the flower shops front door, led by a person bearing arms, all moving towrds our front door in a very hasty fashion. Then all of sudden I realised the person with the gun was a Minneapolis Police Officer, (there was no MPS Squad car) then from behind him appeared a man carrying what looked like an expandable folder with a tie over top. These vehicles included a locksmith van.

What in the world was going on?

The man with the 'folder' rang our doorbell while the police officer took a defensive position to the rear, side, observing all activities in the front doorway area. We keep our flower shop secure with an electric door pass thru lock, surveillance and buzzer system - we activate the lock passsthru after we observe who is at the door, directly or by surveillance system... This entourage entered, after i 'buzzed' them in, identifying themselves as agents of "Centerpoint Energy" and that they were here infact, here to collect a debt or to terminate our gas service.

I was stoopified, terrified, and concerned for my own safety and welfare, not knowing what to expect, after all i was now facing the armed man in blue and was in fact, presented, with a 'court order' "granting them access to the property".

I asked him what in the world was going on, the reply - "This is the way we do it is Houston"

I was completely baffled... I explained to him, i thought he was perhaps Confused, as we were very clearly, in Minneapolis, he chortled, then advised me that this is the way bill collecting is done in Houston TX and now as well, in Minneapolis "and we had better get used to it". I was dumbfounded.

Further, he showed me a "Court Order" that gave Centerpoint Energy the right, to in essence, Break Into our buildings (the locksmith) and go to the gas meters and terminate service.

I advised him it would have been impossible for them to gain entry to the facility with our electro magnetic security system that locks the doors, even with the locksmith, they could not have pulled the dooes open as they are secured beyond the deadbolts. I asked him, had i not been here, would a hole have been smashed in our building? glass been broken to gain access? I asked the fellow to what lengths would they go to enforce this collection effort... he would not answer...

We anted up the several thousand dollars and they were on their way...

The moral of this story... even making minimum payments on an account that has arrears with Centerpoint Energy, you will run the risk of looking down the gun barrell of a Semi-automatic pistol at the behest of yor friendly Centerpoint Energy Collection Agent - we are very fortunate we did not have this happen here... however...

Lets hope you escape with your life as i did. After living thru this horrible experience, i can see immediatly how this could go horribly wrong, in the most unfortunate circumstance where someone mighe feel as if they have 'nothing else left to "lose"'!

.The Minneapolis Police are doing wonderful work of late, crime in the North Side is down, why are they allowing Officers to serve as debt collection enforfement officers for Centerpoint Energy? God forbid should anything bad happen, I think there would be allot of explaining to do by the Police Department and, for sure things would not look so good for the department