Now I know if most people wake up tomorrow and find $120,000 in their bank account, their instincts would tell them to spend that cash, but hopefully this story will caution you from making that mistake!
A Pennsylvania couple is facing felony theft charges after police said they spent $120,000 that was accidentally put in their bank account and failed to notify their bank of the error.
Police said Robert and Tiffany Williams of Montoursville are also facing overdraft fees from the bank of about $107,000, according to the criminal complaint filed in the Lycoming County magisterial district court, CNN reports.
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Officials said Tiffany Williams told them she and her husband spent the money on an SUV, a camper, two four wheelers and a car trailer, among other things, according to an affidavit.
The bank error occurred May 31st when a customer in Georgia made a deposit of $120,000, and the BB&T Bank teller entered the wrong account number. When the customer contacted the bank to ask about the missing deposit, investigators discovered the funds had gone into the Williams’ joint account, according to the affidavit.
The bank reportedly made multiple attempts to contact the Williams’. When the bank finally got ahold of Tiffany Williams, she said “she no longer had the funds because she had already paid off bills,” the affidavit said.
Some of the money also went to pay bills and for car repairs, and the couple gave $15,000 to “friends in need of money,” Tiffany told investigators, according to the affidavit.
She also told the bank she would try to come up with a repayment agreement for the money owed, but the bank wasn’t able to contact the couple after that phone conversation, the affidavit said.
The bank credited the correct account with the $120,000 and debited the same amount from the incorrect one, the affidavit said.
Both Tiffany and Robert Williams told investigators they knew that the large sum of money didn’t belong to them, according to the affidavit.
“All I’m going to say is we took some bad legal advice from some people, and it probably wasn’t the best thing in the end,” Robert Williams told CNN affiliate WNEP outside the court on Monday, where the couple made their first appearance in the case.
