Clare Wainwright, a lawyer in Sydney, Australia got a real surprise when she woke up one morning to find $24.5 million AUD ($19 million) in her Bank account and a fully paid off mortgage. Apparently bank errors had been ongoing since September, leading to her luck on October 25. Between the Australian woman's two banks, one one gave her a massive overdraft, while putting the other beautifully in credit to the tune of millions of dollars..

Woman finds unexpected $19 in her bank account

News.com.au quotes Wainwright as saying the National Australia Bank (NAB) had sent her a letter in September, confirming that a direct debit had been set up for her mortgage repayments.

All well and good, but the letter incorrectly stated her monthly mortgage payments as being $19,225,703, and not the correct figure of $1,900, with the next payment being due on October 25.

On due date, NAB then went on to request a hefty $19 million from her other bank, St. George Bank, who went ahead and made the transfer, putting Wainwright heavily in overdraft. Apparently, no one at the second bank thought anything of transferring such a huge amount from her account. However her NAB account instantly benefited by a new, unexpected and huge $19 million.

Wainwright made a post on Facebook to show the transaction, which reveals a huge balance in Australian dollars.

Naturally the comments to her post are priceless, with one Facebook user helpfully offering her a list of countries to move to that don’t have an extradition treaty with Australia.

Another said they had heard the Cayman Islands were nice, to which somebody quipped “to buy.” Many men jokingly proposed marriage, with one saying he wasn’t a “gold digger.”

The banks are looking into the problem

Wainwright contacted both banks to inform them of the error and they said they would fix it, but the money is still sitting there.

She told the Australian Media that she hasn’t been tempted to touch the money, saying she’s a lawyer and she knows it wouldn’t play out well to do something silly like that. Wainwright said she told the story to her broker, who said, “Oh God,” and told her he would get the bank to fix the problem. NAB said they would contact her broker within three business days.

She went on to say the banks obviously didn’t understand she could skip the country with the money. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that when asked what she would spend it on if it was hers, Wainwright said she would pay off her mortgage and buy another property – or maybe an island.