Bank error in your favor - Run far, run fast

[Bun-bun]

www.foxnes.com/story/0,2933,520973,00.html

A couple in Rotorua, New Zealand applied for a $6000 loan from Westpac bank. The bank made an error, and deposited 6.1 million dollars into their account. They promptly withdrew the money and disappeared.

[NAKID]

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520973,00.html

Link fixed

[Buckethead]

Or at least as far as Taiwan, which does not have an extradition treaty with New Zealand (as far as I can tell, which isn't far at all.)

[Bun-bun]

Link fixed

D"OH!!





So if this happened to you, what would you do?

[erkishhorde]

You can only take so much money with you since they won't let you cash that much out at once. I'm curious how much they made away with. I can't imagine that they were able to get more than 100k or so.

[wbeck257]

Stealing is stealing.

If someone stole your motorcycle, you'd want there balls on a plate.
If you posted about your stolen motorcycle, you'd see "i hope the make the beast with two backser gets caught and dies."

But a lot of people will say this is different. It is not.

Stealing is stealing. And it is wrong regaurdless of the situation.

[Bun-bun]

Stealing is stealing.

If someone stole your motorcycle, you'd want there balls on a plate.
If you posted about your stolen motorcycle, you'd see "i hope the make the beast with two backser gets caught and dies."

But a lot of people will say this is different. It is not.

Stealing is stealing. And it is wrong regaurdless of the situation.

While I see your point, I don't think the stolen bike scenario fits very well. Try this; If you ordered a new 696, and Ducati sent you a desmocedici, would you pack it back up and tell them to come get it, or would you ride that sucker into the sunset?

[KnightofNi]

it's theft. it didn't belong to them and they knew it. i agree that the temptation is strong, and i'm sure the bank would make the beast with two backs them over if they got the chance, but it's still wrong. you can't hope to hide that much of an error.

While I see your point, I don't think the stolen bike scenario fits very well. Try this; If you ordered a new 696, and Ducati sent you a desmocedici, would you pack it back up and tell them to come get it, or would you ride that sucker into the sunset?

you are getting something you didn't pay for.
i would take some pics and prob fire it up, but yes, i would tell them they sent me the wrong thing. partly because i don't want to think about what the insurance on it is. 

[the_Journeyman]

You'd still be on the hook for the money.  They have records.  It's just easier to let them fix the mistake.  If you're lucky you might get to keep the interest it accrued for the day or two it was in the account.  That'd be a nice bonus ~

JM

[Triple J]

Looks like they got $2.3M. 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/21/international/i021829D42.DTL&tsp=1

I agree though...it is stealing. Tempting as it may be I'd tell the bank of their error.

[erkishhorde]

It's funny how something that can be made out of thin air can also be stolen.

I wonder how long $2.3mil would last. That's 46 years of pay for someone with a $50k salary. Without tax too.

[acalles]

Back in the 90's my grandpa bought this huge 43ft $180k motor home..

The bank screwed up and sent him the title after the first payment 

grandpa, not being a thief sent it back with a nice letter about them needing better employees. 

they were very thankfull to say the least.

[red baron]

It's called morals.

[Porsche Monkey]

It's called morals.

+1. Wonder how many people are out of a job because of this.

[Xiphias]

I hope they are caught. The holder of my mortgage screwed up and credited my mortgage (for fairly large amount). When I raised it to them - their first response was "Are you sure you didn't pay it down?" - I told them that I didn't have that amount of money lying around. So, the account rep sent my case "to a special accounting department". My initial reaction was not worry about it and let them eat it (the account rep on the other end was a smug cocksucker). About a half dozen phone calls later I finally hooked up with someone at W*M* who wasn't mentally handicapped and sorted it out. After going through all of the checks I sent them and crosschecking them against their records we found the error.