WBRZ - Baton Rouge

Federal regulators shut down a debt collection agency in Los Angeles accused of harassing people who owe, by threatening to kill their pets or dig up dead relatives. The business operated under a variety of names but is owned by David Haynes and his wife Lorena. The Federal Trade Commission stopped the company operations and froze its assets on Wednesday. The FTC says one collector told a woman who was unable to pay the balance on her daughter's funeral bill that collectors would dig up the body and hang it from a tree if she didn't come up with the money. Authorities say she was also told the collectors would take her dog and eat it.