A Pennsylvania couple apparently thought they’d hit the jackpot on May 31.
A teller at a BB&T Bank in Lycoming County accidentally deposited $120,000 into their account, police say. Before the teller’s mistake, Robert and Tiffany Williams had $1,121 in their account.
State police say the Montoursville couple spent nearly all of the money in just over two weeks.
The couple bought an SUV, a camper, a car trailer, and two four-wheelers. They also reportedly spent the money on bills, car repairs, cash purchases and gave $15,000 to a friend in need, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.
Then the whole thing started to unravel.
On June 20, the bank figured out the mistake and pulled the money out of the account held by Robert, 36, and Tifanny, 35. After that move, the couple was left with $107,416 in overdraft fees, the Sun-Gazette wrote.
The bank said it contacted Tiffany and told her that she and her husband were “responsible for the return of all the funds,” State Trooper Aaron Brown said.
But Tiffany told bank officials that “she no longer had the funds because she had already paid off bills. She told the bank her husband had spent a great portion of the funds and purchased a four-wheeler. She said she would speak to her husband and attempt to construct a repayment agreement” with the bank, Brown said.
Then the couple went quiet, state police said. In July, no one could reach them.
But in late July, in separate interviews with investigators, the couple “admitted to knowing the mislaid money did not belong to them, but they spent it anyway,” Brown said.
After that admission, the two were arrested on felony charges of theft and receiving stolen property. They were arraigned on Tuesday before District Judge Gary Whiteman and released on $25,000 bail each.
Neighbors were stunned, WNEP-TV reported.
“That is kind of shocking, with all the procedures the banks have set up, checking and double-checking and triple-checking, there`s no way anybody gets away with that stuff,” said Nate Weaver. …
“I would check in with the bank first before I didn`t anything, I`m not that dumb but some people do stupid things sometimes,” said Robert Painton.
It’s happened before. With banks now fully digital, mistakes can happen when someone pushes a few wrong buttons.
In 2017, a Pennsylvania man allegedly spent half of the $280,000 his bank mistakenly deposited in his account. In a recent court ruling, a state Superior Court panel rejected his appeal to overturn his theft and receiving stolen property convictions and ordered him to repay $157,000.
In 2016, an Australian man was stunned when he found the bank had deposited $123 million Australian dollars into his account. That same year, another bank put $4.6 million into a teenage girl’s account.
That case, though, worked out well for her. The girl, who was a chemical engineering student, allegedly spent $3.3 million in less than a year. She said she thought her parents had deposited the money.
But in 2017, all charges were dropped.
