For a brief while, a Texas woman was a multimillionaire.
That moment ended soon after she realized that the $37 million that was added to her account came as a result of a clerical error.
Ruth Balloon was just finishing up her shift at Dallas store Roma Boots when she checked her bank account and discovered the surprise.
“I was like, ‘Wow, we have a lot of money!’” Balloon recalled to KTVT. “I hoped someone really gifted us with that $37 million.”
Balloon excitedly phoned her husband to tell him about the unexpected windfall. He called the bank, LegacyTexas Bank, to inquire about the deposit, only to find out that it was all one big mix-up. The money was quickly removed.
She said that she wished the bank would have given her some sort of reward for doing the right thing.
“A ‘thank you’ reward would be a little bit good. Just for being a good customer and notifying them as soon as possible,” Balloon said.
If she would have kept the money, Balloon said the first thing she would have done would be to tithe 10% to her church. She also said she would have donated some of the wealth to charity and invested in real estate.
LegacyTexas Bank acknowledged the error in a statement. It said even if Balloon hadn’t reported the income, it would have been found and reversed anyway.
“Due to the fluctuation in exchange rates, all foreign currency transactions must be manually entered into our system through our back office. When our client’s deposit was being keyed in, our representative entered her account number into the amount field by mistake,” the statement said.
