Oh, the enduring dream of free money. It drives us to dump our cash into lotteries and sacrifice our relationships and sit around obsessively filling out online surveys, but it never actually pays off—well, almost never. Every now and then, the stars align, the money gods smile down upon a chosen few of us, and that elusive promise of free riches actually becomes a reality. That’s exactly what went down over the weekend—but if you didn’t happen to spend your Thanksgiving break camped out next to a mystical ATM in Houston, well, better luck next time.
According to KPRC, the whole thing started when some incredibly lucky guy stopped to get cash from of a Bank of America ATM on Sunday night. Instead of the $10 bill he was expecting, the ATM spat out a $100. And then it just kept happening.
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Unfortunately for him, the man broke the first rule of uncovering a secret treasure and started bragging about it. Instead of just posting up at the ATM and milking the machine for as many Benjamins as he could, he posted about his surprise windfall on social media. Pretty soon, a swarm of people descended on the place, drawn in by the sweet, sweet promise of free money, KPRC reports.
That’s when things got pretty wild. The ATM drew a huge line of people frantically withdrawing $100s and, naturally, no one was feeling all that patient. According to KPRC, multiple fist fights broke out before the cops finally caught wind of the wild scene and shut the whole thing down.
Police eventually sent a few guards to the ATM to make sure no one withdrew any more $100s until Bank of America could open up the ATM and discover the problem: Someone accidentally stuck $100 bills into the ATM’s $10 bill slot. The bank wouldn’t disclose exactly how much money was lost in the whole debacle, but according to a statement, they won’t be asking anyone to return the cash.
“This was an incident at a single ATM in Houston caused when a vendor incorrectly loaded $100 bills in place of $10 bills,” Bank of America told KPRC on Monday. “We have resolved the matter. Customers will be able to keep the additional money dispensed.”
It’s kind of incredible that Bank of America is just writing off the money, since it usually doesn’t work that way, but let’s be real. Would this whole thing even be a story if that first guy hadn’t posted about the ATM online and blown up his spot? The lesson here is clear: If you ever find yourself in front of a magical, malfunctioning ATM spitting free $100s into your sweaty palms, do not take a quick break to go brag about it online. Just start cramming the money into your pockets and get the hell out of there. There’ll be plenty of time to make your friends jealous once you start posting photos of those expensive-ass moon rocks you just bought or whatever.
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