Woman from Florida becomes billionaire by mistake

Variety 11:57 AM - 2021-06-24

Photo credit: AFP

A woman from Florida who went to the bank to withdraw $20 also checked her balance to find she had $999,985,855.94 that isn't hers sitting in her account.

 

According to The Metro, Julia Yonkowski realized she had become the 615th richest person in America on Saturday after visiting an ATM. She said she's tried to contact her bank, Chase, to let them know about the error but says she's struggling to return the money to its rightful owner.

 

Julia is adamant that the cash is not hers and has said she's desperate to get rid of the money as soon as possible.

 

She has called Chase several times but so far no one from the bank has returned her calls.

 

She told WFLA: "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."

 

It was only when she decided to take a look at the balance in her checking account that she noticed she was a few thousand dollars short of being a billionaire by accident.

 

Julia 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. It kind of scares me because you know with cyber threats. You know I don't know what to think."

 

Julia is still trying to contact someone at her local Chase branch to alert them about the big-money mistake.

 

She said: "I just can't get through. I get tied up with their automated system and I can't get a person."

 

It is unclear what caused the glitch that made Julia a billionaire. Chase has yet to comment on the error – but Julia hopes the money will be removed from her account in the coming days.

 

 

 

PUKmedia \ Asharq Al-Awsat