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Couple must return $120,000 after bank error prompted spending spree

DevilMayGuy

DevilMayGuy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,572
Texas
JDSpades said:
I think a fair comparison would be you paying someone to hold your wallet, and that person gives the money in your wallet to someone else. I wouldn't be pissed if the person then spent the money, I'd be pissed at the person who was in charge of holding my wallet.
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It's an infantile comparison that is wholly driven by your negative sentiment towards banks. It makes zero sense. Total bunk.

What's more, the couple themselves knew it was wrong, given the alacrity with which they spent the mistakenly deposited money.

The continued reliance of some posters on playground ethics, morality, and ownership is fascinating
 
vypek

vypek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,528
nazgul_hunter said:
If this ever happened to me, I would just put it in a high interest rate account, and try to drag my feet as much as possible in giving it back. Not spend it.
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Pretty sure there was and event where someone got a ton of money and asked if he could keep the interest it made. He wasn't allowed to. They probably take it away no matter what. But his was also very large because the dollar amount that mysteriously showed up was just a lot of 8's in a row iirc
 
big_z

big_z

Member
Nov 2, 2017
7,794
nazgul_hunter said:
If this ever happened to me, I would just put it in a high interest rate account, and try to drag my feet as much as possible in giving it back. Not spend it.
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The bank will automatically take it out of your account. I had 20k in error last year with my bank and they also messed up my credit card balance paying off most of my debt. Took a month but they completely fixed it on their own. Just had to be very careful with spending during that time.
 
Burly

Burly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,064
Armaros said:
Its amazing that when it comes to stuff like this, so many people, including poeple in this thread, revert to 3rd grade ideas about ownership.
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Your Honor, I would like to present precedents for this case, citing Little Ricky Jenkins v. Dougie Jones: "Na-na na-na boo boo, stick their head in doo doo"
 
nekkid

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
Is there a period of time in which they are allowed to notice and request it back? Like, if it was there for a couple of years before they said anything would you be entitled to keep it?
 
Mammoth Jones

Mammoth Jones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,290
New York
No sympathy for greedy fuckheads. You're an adult. Not a kid in a 80's B movie.

In real life you have to give the money back immediately. The fuck. They really think "finders keepers" is legally binding precedent...
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
92,983
I wonder whose money it was, they didn't notice the error for a while
 

Lishi

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,284
Dreamwriter said:
A better comparison would be you paying someone to hold your wallet, that person dropping the wallet out of their pocket, and someone else seeing the money drop from the pocket, picking it up and rather than telling the person or giving it back, spending the money. You should be pissed at both parties.
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It's more probably like someone made the wrong transfer.
Someone put the wrong account number somewhere around the chain.
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,243
Maryland
Ouch, that really sucks. Always check with the bank first. My mom got a large sum of money deposited in her account one day, and rather than contact the bank, she waited to see what would happen. Within a week it was already removed from her account, so thankfully she knew better than spend it.

I also got a random sum of money a couple months after leaving a previous job, and rather than put it away, called them up to make sure it wasn't in error.
 
Elderly Parrot

Elderly Parrot

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Aug 13, 2018
3,146
Lunchbox- said:
can you really be charged with theft and a felony when the bank dropped it in your account without any involvement from you?

yes you return it since it's an error, but a felony? so Bank of America can deposit 5$ in my checking and charge me for a felony?
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Theft is a specific intent felony so they would have to prove you had the intent to know the property was not yours and you wanted to deprive them of the money. These idiots pretty much confessed to the crime. Also if you aren't from the US, Bank is America is not a government body just a company so they didn't actually charge them with a felony.
 
Galkinator

Galkinator

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,937
I cannot imagine how fucking stupid you must be to think an accidental deposit into your account won't be taken away.
"HuRR dURr wE GoT fREe MOnEyZ fRoM ThE bAnK LeTs gO sPeND LOL"
 
Cocolina

Cocolina

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,974
Everyone knows you're supposed to buy a property with it, or upgrade existing properties to a hotel with it
 
spam musubi

spam musubi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,380
Dekuman said:
If the reverse was true and the bank debited them 120k they would be asking for it back plus damages and it will be all over the media with their crying faces about being bankrupted etc.

So yeah the bank error is not their money .
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It's almost like there is an unbalanced power dynamic here and reversing the situation doesn't make sense
 
Josh5890

Josh5890

I'm Your Favorite Poster's Favorite Poster
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,115
Dekuman said:
If the reverse was true and the bank debited them 120k they would be asking for it back plus damages and it will be all over the media with their crying faces about being bankrupted etc.

So yeah the bank error is not their money .
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Well it is a good thing that every checking and savings account are federally insured up to $250,000.
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
spam musubi said:
It's almost like there is an unbalanced power dynamic here and reversing the situation doesn't make sense
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Nothing to do with power dynamics man. It's caused by a human error but its still theft when they spend the 120k and them refused to pay it back (read the news story).

I only highlighted the reverse to show how it makes no sense if the bank had done something in their favor and refused to give the money back
.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,090
nazgul_hunter said:
If this ever happened to me, I would just put it in a high interest rate account, and try to drag my feet as much as possible in giving it back. Not spend it.
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doublechocochip said:
Should have placed it into a money market account and returned it when the bank asked for it.
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I think the interest would belong to the bank as well. I'm not a legal expert, but I think the act of putting the money into a separate account would be evidence that you knew the money wasn't yours and would open you up to legal trouble.
 
spam musubi

spam musubi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,380
Dekuman said:
Nothing to do with power dynamics man. It's caused by a human error but its still theft when they spend the 120k and them refused to pay it back (read the news story).

I only highlighted the reverse to show how it makes no sense if the bank had done something in their favor and refused to give the money back
.
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I understand that, but reversing the situation still doesn't make sense. In either case the bank is responsible for the error. They have mechanisms protecting themselves in these cases, if the bank accidentally loses $120k they will survive whereas in the case where the bank accidentally takes $120k from a customer that can have a devastating impact even if it gets resolved eventually. It's just a bad comparison to make.
 
Silentbomber

Silentbomber

Member
Oct 27, 2017
452
It was a mistake on the banks part sure, but the couple knew the money was not theirs. They could have called the bank and returned it, they would have the funny story of the time the bank paid them over 100k once and be done with it. But no, they spent all the cash anyway - not knowing where it came from and knowing full well it was not theirs. They thought if they spent it quickly, nobody would notice. It is theft.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,090
Some people in this thread are overlooking the fact that the money deposited in error isn't coming out of thin air. That $120,000.00 probably was a single deposit intended for someone else's account. By not reporting the error when they first noticed as soon as possible, that couple could've seriously screwed over another person's financial well-being. That money could've been deposited in preparation for a large purchase like a home or to pay a debt.
 

Cokie Bear

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,944
I worked for a bank for a while and took a call from a customer this happened to. The bank was meant to deposit a sum of money into her account and whoever was doing it somehow entered her bank account number into the 'deposit amount' field so she ended up with a nice 6 figure sum.

But she called us immediately when she noticed.
 
Darryl M R

Darryl M R

The Spectacular PlayStation-Man
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,715
You should probably contact a bank immediately if this happens to you. Even putting the money in a high yield saving account is iffy.
 
StopMakingSense

StopMakingSense

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,708
ryan13ts said:
Serious question, is there like a period of time that the bank would have to "claim" their money back before the couple could have kept it? I know there are some lost property laws like that, but was curious if something like that could apply in a situation like this.

Either way though, it was dumb of them to spend it with no hesitation or forethought.
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In theory, but in most jurisdictions, becoming the owner of mislaid property means you have exhausted reasonable means of finding the actual owner, and usually surrendering the property to the police for some statutory amount of time.
 
Stainless

Stainless

Member
Feb 26, 2018
592
Nashville,TN
I feel like they knew they shouldn't spend it but did it anyways. Think about it, even if you DID win 120k lottery, wouldn't 90% of most sane people just deposit and if they did anything they might pay off a mortgage or take a much needed vacation.
 
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