"I want my money and I want it now."

The calls started with a simple demand, but then they became terrifying.

"See a real man realizes he screwed up and then he pays the money back. See that's not you, though. You're a punk."

"If it takes me a year, if it takes me two, believe me I will find you."

"When I see you, I will [expletive deleted] you up."

A Florida husband and wife are still so frightened of the man who made those calls they don't want INSIDE EDITION to use their names. They say the calls came from a debt collector when they were late paying back a debt to a Florida check cashing business.  

"It started with one and then it followed up with another then another then another," says the husband.

"I will find your sister, your daughter...I will find her and I will find you."

And it didn't stop with the calls. Next, the debt collector showed up at the couple's home.

She tells INSIDE EDITION, "I was like, 'Aren't you the man I heard threatening my husband over the phone? I suggest you get off my property right now.' "  

She called 911, but the man wouldn't leave.

"He sat at the end of my driveway in front of my driveway blocking my driveway until the police showed up," she says.

"These are tactics that Tony Soprano would blush at," says Tampa attorney Billy Howard of the firm Morgan & Morgan, who represents the couple in a lawsuit against the check cashing business.

"People have the right to not be harassed in their home. And they certainly have the right to not be terrorized in their home," Howard says.

So what did the couple INSIDE EDITION spoke to do to deserve the threats against their lives?

"It's a $300 debt," he explains.

That's right. $300 was all it took to sic this debt collector on them. His name is Mickey Swafford and he works for Jacksonville Check Cashers, Inc. He's an ex-cop who was fired from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office three years ago for allegedly beating a man who was handcuffed.  

Ironically, just months before Mickey Swafford was lecturing people about paying their debts, he declared bankruptcy.  He'd run up nearly $70,000 of credit debt.  He owed Home Depot alone $13,000.

INSIDE EDITION tracked down Swafford in Florida as he was having his oil changed.

"Is it right for bill collectors to threaten people's families?" INSIDE EDITION's Chief Investigative Correspondent Matt Meagher asked him. "You said your sister, your daughter. Wasn't that very threatening? Can we talk to you please?"

Swafford just walked away.

As for that $300 debt? The couple says they have paid it off.

The company that Swafford works for is denying the allegations made by the couple.

Debt collectors must follow federal guidelines (the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) when calling consumers.  For more information on your rights when dealing with debt collectors, please visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website: www.ftc.gov
 
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