Catherine LaFrance, 1-866-362-2167 Ext. 13856, clafrance@heraldargus.com

Photo: By Wendy Thoms Dave and Charity Harley, with their children A'donna, 9, and Zachary, 7, sit in their cold dark Westville home Wednesday afternoon. The family discovered Wednesday morning that NIPSCO had cut their service because of a late payment. More photos from this shoot

WESTVILLE -- In light of what some might consider Scrooge-like behavior, it might be a good time for bigwigs at Northern Indiana Public Service Company to watch “A Christmas Carol.”

On Wednesday morning, just days before Christmas, the company shut off service to one of its own employees, leaving his family in the dark and without heat on a chilly, rainy December day.

Dave and Charity Harley and their two children, A’donna, 9, and Zachary, 7, found themselves without electricity Wednesday morning, and scrambling to re-establish service with NIPSCO -- the same company for which Dave has worked for the past eight years.

“It’s heartless,” he told The LaPorte County Herald-Argus Wednesday night from his candlelit home.

As a dedicated employee of NIPSCO, Harley said he was astounded to see how poorly he was treated by the customer service of his own company.

Through a series of postal problems, the Harleys said they had not been receiving mail for the past several months -- including several disconnect notices from NIPSCO -- but the problem had been fixed.

That didn’t fly with NIPSCO, Charity said.

“They told me the last disconnect notice was sent Dec. 4, but we never received it,” she said. The December bill and notice was the last in a string of disconnect notices the couple said they had not been getting due to the mix-up with the post office.

Having received disconnect notices in the past, Dave said they usually shake up their budget and make a payment, sometimes at the expense of other bills. But without knowledge of the notice from December, the family had no idea what lay in store for them.

“Other bills come up,” Dave said. “There’s house payments, insurance -- the list goes on.”

Charity said an offer to make a partial payment was rejected by the company.

“I could have borrowed some of the money from my mom,” she said. “But not all of it. The bill could have been paid, but not the reconnection fees.”

Although not necessarily a low-income family, the Harleys have had their share of financial obstacles, including helping to house Dave’s brother, whose income isn’t sufficient for him to help with the family’s budget, Dave said.

Several programs -- including one through NIPSCO itself -- are designed to help low-income families whose electricity has been or will be shut off. But if a family’s income level is too high -- despite having a true financial need -- there is very little that can be done.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had to ask for help,” Charity said.

After working in several capacities for NIPSCO, including as a coal handler and a meter reader, Dave recently finished welding coursework, having been in that field for the past four years.

But after working hard to finish his certification, he feels his sweat and mental equity have been disregarded by his own company.

“They shove ethics classes down our throats (as a NIPSCO employee),” Dave said. “What kind of ethics are these?”

The couple and their two children, along with Dave’s brother, have been living in a three-bedroom rental home in Westville for the past few months, having moved from the Portage area after they were forced to sell their five-bedroom home there.

Charity, who still does some volunteer work with the Salvation Army in Portage, said she didn’t know how she might feel about being on the receiving end of help she usually coordinates for families in worse financial condition than her own.

“I don’t want to have to stick my hand out,” she said.

The Harleys are working with some local agencies to help re-establish their utilities. In the meantime, Charity and the children are staying with her parents in Valparaiso, although Dave said he would be braving the cold nighttime temperatures in the family’s Westville house since there isn’t enough room at his in-laws’.