Posted on 05/21/2009 3:38:37 AM PDT by Islander7
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Police launched an international search for two New Zealanders who allegedly took the money and ran after a bank mistakenly put 10 million New Zealand dollars ($6.1 million) into their account.
The couple, who operated a gas station in the northern city of Rotorua, applied to Westpac Bank for a NZ$10,000 ($6,000) overdraft, but 1,000 times that amount was paid into their account. The two then withdrew some of the money and disappeared, Detective Senior Sgt. David Harvey said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In her 15 years as banking Ombudsman, Brown said she had been involved in 10 to 20 similar cases.
PING!
Are you on the lam?
Saw this on the news tonite - these guys are in a ship load of trouble - I understand the temptation but why would you give into it when all it is going to get you is heartache and a nice long stretch in jail.
It’s New Zealand. That would be “lamb”...
I’m not condoning what these two did, but…
If I were a policeman on this case, I would first question the bank employees. Because for this to happen they had to have “someone on the inside.” First, to make the “accidental” deposit error, and then to authorize the withdrawal of that much money in cash.
Methinks, something is rotten in Wellington.
What bank was this? I need to transfer my account there. ^-^
I’ve been banking with the same company for 40 years, every month they send me a statement, every month I check it against my own ledger and I have never caught them making a mistake. I have made plenty of my own in that time period however.
“In her 15 years as banking Ombudsman, Brown said she had been involved in 10 to 20 similar cases.”
It sounds like much better odds than playing the lottery.
...or perhaps that Nigerian guy finally came through.
Something smells like the sulfur pits of Rotorua!
A fun read.
http://www.goodthink.com/writing/view_stories.cfm?id=11&page_id=2
Bank Error In My Favor: Collect $95,000
“Depositing the Junk Check”
I’ve never really thought about it, but that Monopoly card assumes that everyone is dishonest enough to profit from the bank’s error.
That sounds eerily like the obama plan, giving you a lot of money that you can’t spend.
Bank error - too bad, so sad.
The bank doesn’t hesitate to give its depositers all kinds of trouble when THEY make a mistake so, IMO, turn about is fair play. The bank made an error and didn’t catch it before the recipients did.
Not feeling too sympathetic towards banks, these days.
A LONG time ago, I worked for Bum Bright’s bank (He owned the Cowboys at one time). When I quit because of the insanity, my supervisor never told payroll. Dutifully on my last day, I withdrew all the money from the account in anticipation of closing it. There was $200 extra in it. The teller says - it’s yours. The kicker is: when I got my W-2 for the year, they had paid TWO extra paychecks to me for a closed account. I never got the money, so I got an amended W-2. CRAZY things happen in banks!
Hate to say it but I have to agree with you.
Me, either.
They always say that if you leave the bank after making a withdrawl, and learn that you didn’t get all the cash you’d expected, too bad. They say check the amount before leaving.
Same rule applies, I say.
Years ago my wife made a mortgage payment by check to our lender bank. The lender credited the wrong account and then submitted the check to an intermediary bank for the wrong amount; less than the check was written for.
The intermediary bank then submitted that check to our bank, again for the incorrect lesser amount.
When we received a notice that our mortgage payment had not been paid, I checked with my bank. They had the cashed check with an incorrect endorsement on it, but showing everybody who had processed the check.
At first my bank claimed that there was nothing they could do about it. They said I had to contact my mortgage lender.
Their attitude changed a little when I pointed out that I could simply close my account immediately and I would be ahead by $500, since they had shorted my mortgage holder of that amount, to my credit.
Even then, my bank showed incredible incompetence. When I contacted the local branch of my mortgage holder, the lady there was fascinated. She had never seen a compounded error like that and she was eager to become involved.
Since there were a total of four errors committed by three banks, it took a special committee of bankers to document everything to everybody's satisfaction before the errors could be corrected.
Needless to say, I closed my checking account and moved my business to a different bank.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.