Woman Finds $10 Billion in Checking Account

AP ^ | 10/23/02

[11th Earl of Mar]

By Associated Press

October 23, 2002, 11:33 AM EDT

STOCKHOLM, Sweden --

When Gun-Britt Marklund checked her bank account to see whether her monthly child allowance check had arrived from the Swedish government, she knew that what she saw was too good to be true.

Her account showed a balance of more than 93 billion kronor (US$10 billion) on Sunday.

"You never see amounts like this," said the 40-year-old teacher and mother of three children, ages 10, 13 and 15. "I thought this money doesn't belong to me. Something must be wrong."

Marklund's hunch was correct. On Monday, she informed her bank of the inflated child allowance payment -- twice the size of Sweden's defense budget -- and the bank acted swiftly.

An employee had punched in a few too many zeros when funneling payments from the social insurance office into Marklund's account, ICA Bank spokesman Bo Lagergren said.

The transaction was canceled and gone were the 93 billion kronor along with 15 million kronor (US$1.6 million) of interest accrued over the three days before the error was detected.

Lagergren said the bank had sent Marklund a bouquet of flowers along with apologies.

"We hope she'll be happy with that," Lagergren said. "But it's of course very difficult to find compensation on this level."

Marklund, who lives in Haernoesand, 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, said her child allowance is normally 3,000 kronor (US$322) a month.

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

[MTCJK]

What an idiot--loose lips sink big balances

[mlmr]

My first reaction?

"Thank you Lord, thank you!!

[mlmr]

My first reaction?

"Thank you Lord, thank you!!

[The G Man]

Sniper?

[john in missouri]

"I thought this money doesn't belong to me. Something must be wrong."

Ya think??

Obviously a Democrat.

[Constitutional Patriot]

When I saw the title my first reaction was "God let this be my wife.."

[Lucas1]

Wow on the interest...heh

[Howlin]

ROFLMAO.

[Always Right]

What an idiot--loose lips sink big balances

I really think they would have found out pretty soon anyways. If she was a theif, her best bet would have been to transfer a big chunk of the money into another account in another country and move there.

[john in missouri]

Lol. That would've been my first reaction as well.

Unfortunately, my second reactions would've been, "If I spend any of this, I'm going to be in deep manure."

[goldstategop]

The Swedish welfare state almost went bankrupt... lol

[robertpaulsen]

Wait a minute. Was that money from a Mr.Afred Mahon from Nigeria?

[blackdog]

Better than the time I had my checking account overdrawn to the tune of $188,000 plus change. It seems someone fat fingered keying all the daily checking debits from Giant Food Stores and they hit my account. Instant ruin that took me three damn weeks to get corrected. About a year later I went to an ATM machine and I had a positive balance of $360,000 when withdrawing twenty bucks! Funny though, that was corrected the next day. I saved the receipt though.

[Tired of Taxes]

That happens very often (though usually in the thousands, not for billions of dollars). Years ago, my husband worked in a job correcting such errors for a bank. Usually, the account holders would see the error and make a quick withdrawal, then spend it all. The bank would have to settle for something like $10/month pay-back from the customer, who ended up with an interest-free loan! When they asked one woman, "Didn't you know that the $100,000 wasn't yours?" She responded, "But, I was praying for it, and I thought God gave it to me."

[tubebender]

I thought I had found my long lost love...I'll keep looking.

[mlmr]

I don't know, what would be the interest charges on 10 billion per minute for being in my account...

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

You have a really stupid person working in bookkeeping at your bank! lol

[lelio]

had a positive balance of $360,000 when withdrawing twenty bucks!
If that happened to me my fingers would of been worn out going from ATM to ATM withdrawing funds. Wonder what $100k in $20 bills would look like in my wallet.

[Straight Vermonter]

This story is outrageously funny.