Man Becomes Instant Quadrillionaire After PayPal Error

Image via Flickr/ Rocky A

One Delaware resident was extremely lucky for an extremely short amount of time. Fifty-six year-old Reynolds received a huge surprise from PayPal when he opened his monthly statement via email and saw that he had become a quadrillionare. The sum of his statement was $92,233,720,368,547,800.

The father of three became the richest person in the world overnight, and it was just as quickly taken away from him. “It’s a number you don’t see written out very often, even in national finance circles,” Chris Reynolds told the Daily News. “My thought was a) it’s a mistake and b) it’s a BIG mistake. It was more funny than elating.”

Reynolds, who has been using PayPal for the past 10 years to buy and sell items on eBay, checked his account after opening the email and found that the error was rectified: he went from being a quadrillionaire to having a $0 balance. He posted a snapshot of the email showing his fortunes on Facebook, and people he hadn’t spoke to in years started messaged him. He did not anticipate the post getting the widespread publicity it did.

According to Philly.com, the father of three was still left feeling charitable afterwards and donated $30 to the Democratic slate for Delaware City Council. He told the site that, if it were true, he’d be a generous man with the money.

I’m a very responsible guy,” he said. “I would pay the national debt down first. Then I would buy the Phillies, if I could get a great price.”

A PayPal spokesperson claimed she could not disclose personal account information, but that the incident was being further investigated.

Word of advice: if you receive money in your account that you know isn’t yours, don’t spend it. No matter how you spin it, how small or large the sum is, you will still be responsible for stealing that money.

Last year, 55-year-old Ronald Page, who only had $300 in his Bank of America checking account, suddenly had $1.5 million. Page withdrew the entire sum and wasted it all on gambling. He plead guilty for charges of theft of bank fraud.

Even though he’s no longer the richest person in the world, he’s still got his humor. “The sad part is that I got word that they still need me to renew the credit card that’s attached to this account,” he said. “So, even though I have 90 quadrillion dollars, they still don’t trust me.”