Allen Jones, a Lewisville Texas resident, owed just under $200 in debt. His debt was passed on to the collection agency Advanced Call Center Technologies, LLC. While trying to collect a payment towards his debt several employees called his phone and left multiple vulgar and offensive messages threatening him to make payments.
Most of the messages were too obscene to release to the public, one of the most memorable telling Jones, an African-American, to get out of bed and to pick some cotton fields.
Jones took his case to court in Dallas where the jury ruled in his favor and “he won $50,000 in mental anguish and $1.5 million in punitive damages” after the harassing calls from the collection agency were recorded. It appears Jones will will do all the collecting from now on as he collects $1.5 million from this agency whom he owed less than $200.
Whether or not the employees who admittedly made these offensive calls are still with the company remains unclear.