Didn’t think you could ever get arrested for that nagging student loan? Think again.
One Houston resident told the city’s Fox 26 that seven gun-toting deputy U.S. Marshals arrested him last week for an unpaid $1,500 federal loan from 1987. Paul Aker said that he was then taken to a federal court, where he had to sign a repayment plan.
U.S. Representative Gene Green, who represents much of eastern Houston, explained to Fox 26 that the federal government uses private debt collectors to go after people with oustanding unpaid loans. Collectors can tap federal judges and Marshals in their pursuit of debtors. An anonymous source in the city’s U.S. Marshals Service said that the Marshals have between 1,200 and 1,500 outstanding warrants to serve for citizens with unpaid student loan debt.