Julia Yonkowski became a billionaire over the weekend—thanks to a bank error.
A woman from Florida withdrew $20 from an ATM and, upon checking her balance, found that she had become a billionaire.
Julia Yonkowski contacted her local Chase bank after she saw the unexpected $999,985,855.94 sitting in her checking account, but they are yet to return her calls.
On Saturday, Yonkowski who is a resident of Largo, Florida that Located in the west of Tampa, first noticed the massive deposit into her account, which suddenly made Julia the 615th richest person in the United States of America by that large influx of cash.
“I know most people would think they won the lottery but I was horrified,” she said.
“I know I’ve read stories about people that took the money or took out money, and then they had to repay it and I wouldn’t do that anyway because it’s not my money,” she added
Yonkowski, who prides herself in being honest, wants nothing more than to return the money to its rightful owner, so she doesn’t get in trouble for having it.
Yonkowski said she’s tried several times to reach Chase Bank but hasn’t been able to get on the line with a real person. She hopes she’ll be able to clear everything up as soon as possible.
Yonkowski later told WFLA that she was horrified, “‘Oh my God, I was horrified. I know most people would think they won the lottery, but I was horrified, When I put in for the $20, the machine came back and said we’ll give you the $20, but that’ll cause an overdraft and you will be charged, and I said, ‘Oh, just forget it.’”
Yonkowski doesn’t want to do something wrong and bring a waterfall of negative consequences into her peaceful life, that’s why Julia has been careful not to touch her bank account since she first noticed the mistake on Saturday.
Julia might be a temporary billionaire, but she doesn’t want anything to do with the money. She keeps calling the bank, but no one is taking her complaint seriously.
She said, “I just can’t get through. I get tied up with their automated system, and I can’t get a person.”
Readers of Daily Mail were shocked by the news but shared a warning for Julia to be careful.
“The real story here is 615 people in this country (that we know of) have more than that. Also, I’m sure if she spent even a penny, they’d bury her under the prison. Banks are absolutely ruthless, even when they’re wrong.”
“Possibly a laundering ploy, I do believe. Something about moving it in and back out of random accounts without account holder even knowing about it.”
What do you think happened in this case?
Sources: America.awm, Syracuse, Wfla
