An accounting error made a Fairfax County couple very rich -- at least for a few hours.
Amy Roland of Vienna, Va., deposited $425 at her bank on Monday. When she received her receipt, it read she deposited $425, but it struck her odd that her account was still low.
So when Amy got home, she checked her balance online -- and did a double take. Her account had more than $39 million in it. Instead of blowing it all on eBay, she headed back to the bank to figure things out.
On the way there, she called her husband and told him, “You’re talking to one of the richest women in the United States!”
Her husband, Lacey, immediately thought maybe she’d won the lottery, a rich relative gave her money or she hit the jackpot at the casino. Amy finally confessed that it might be a bank mistake.
Lacey said he though for a quick second to not tell the bank, and “ride this thing out.” But he knew that the bank would eventually find out.
Back at the bank, Amy told the bank manager she had $39 million in her account, but he did not believe her. Once the manager pulled Amy’s account and saw the millions in her bank balance, Amy said she thought, “maybe there’s some rich person that really loves me so much that they put all that money in the account.”
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Nope, no love here.
It turns out someone at the bank had entered her account routing number where the cash amount was supposed to go.
The mistake was fixed. Amy feels like she saved the bank a lot of accounting problems and overtime, so dinner would have been nice. But she only walked away with a free pen.
