BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - A Pennsylvania man said he considered it divine providence when a bank error put more than $175,000 in his and his wife’s account.Fifty-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Pratt face trial in Columbia County Court on felony theft and conspiracy charges. They waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
The trouble started when a $1,772.50 deposit to the Pratts’ FNB Bank account showed up as $177,250 last summer. Police say that instead of telling the bank, they withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida.
They were buying a house in the Orlando area when the mistake was traced.
Randy Pratt told the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise he did attempt to ask the bank what happened, but was ignored. He said he considered the money “a gift from God.”
The couple gave away thousands of dollars, including $25,000 to a Florida church shelter for the homeless, he said.
Randy Pratt remained in county prison. A judge denied a request to lower his $100,000 bail. Melissa Pratt, who told the court she was estranged from her husband, was free on unsecured bail.
If they were really smart they would’ve taken that money and invested it, when they doubled their money replaced the principal back into the account. Thus a legit free 177k and the bank collects theirs back.
What would I do? Notify them immediately. But then again since I’m in the banking industry I’m well aware of the laws and realize that it’s a criminal offense to pretend like the money is yours.
I had close to $10k deposited in my account on accident when I was 18. Even then I was smart enough to hold off from just saying “It happens in monopoly, bank error, collect $75.”
Yeah, i would have definitely put it in 3 month cd and collected.
But, isn’t anyone else curious as to how he gave them $1772 and after the mistake, he had $177,200? Think about it. The money wasn’t transfered from the banks personal account, it was made out of thin air right? Who is to say the bank can’ just do that all the time? What kind of fraud protection is there in this matter?
