Couple arrested for spending money deposited in their account by bank error

A couple in Pennsylvania reportedly discovered the hard way that they should not have spent money deposited in their account by a banking error.

What happened?

In the board game Monopoly, one of the best cards in the "Community Chest" deck reads "Bank error in your favor. Collect $200." But life advice should never be taken from a board game, and this is no exception to that rule.

Robert and Tiffany Williams of Pennsylvania were surprised to see an extra $120,000 in their bank account in May. The Williamsport Sun-Gazette reported that before the mistake, they had only $1,121 in their bank account.

The money was supposed to go into the account of an investment firm, but a bank teller had mistakenly deposited it in the Williams' account. Rather than contacting the bank and reporting the error, the couple did what many people would undoubtedly be at least tempted to do: They went on a spending spree.

Then, on June 19, BB&T called to demand that the couple return the money. The company had removed the money from their account which had resulted in their account being overdrawn by $107,000.

State Trooper Aaron Brown said in a statement that Tiffany Williams told the bank that "she no longer had the funds because she had already paid off bills. She told the bank her husband had spent a great portion of the funds and purchased a four-wheeler. She said she would speak to her husband and attempt to construct a repayment agreement."

But following this indication that she was willing to pay, WNEP-TV reported that BB&T was unable to reach Robert or Tiffany. By July, the bank decided to get the police involved. The two were arrested and are currently out on $25,000 bail.

What else?

The couple aren't the first people to find themselves seemingly richer following a bank error. According to a 2017 article by NBC News, a teenager from Georgia was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he spent $30,000 that had been mistakenly deposited in his account instead of the account of someone else with the same last name.