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Matthew J. Hartigan had no idea he shared his name with a man who stiffed a city and several businesses for more than $100,000.
Because of it, bill collectors have made the last 17 years of his life nearly unbearable. "This is the third time in twelve years I have had to prove to someone that you are not entitled to my money," Hartigan wrote to a law firm six years ago.
Hartigan told The Philadelphia Enquirer he was only 12 years old when someone with the same name paid less than $3,000 for a piece of land in the City of Brotherly Love. However, the other Hartigan didn't keep up with his responsibilities, sending collectors looking for him.
Instead, they found the Clearwater, Florida, Hartigan and began nearly two decades of beating on his door.
However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.
The Enquirer's Jeff Gelles writes, "Sharon Humble, a lawyer at the latest firm to demand he repay some other guy's debts, told me Clearwater Matt had repeatedly been fingered as Frankford Matt by a third-party "skip-tracing" company. Now his address has been flagged as wrong."
In a letter to Florida Hartigan she wrote, “We appreciate your patience, and we expect you will not receive further correspondence from our firm."
Maybe, but maybe not.
Philadelphia attorney Jim Francis said, "Somewhere, deeply embedded inside somebody's computer system, the wrong consumer is identified." When that happens, "you have to untangle it like a knot in fishing line," Francis said.
In this case, the innocent Hartigan will wait and hope.
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