$50 million check too good to be true

County computer listing big payoffs by mistake

By Brian Werth,
Herald-Times Business Editor

Fred Rice was shocked, happy and bemused  in that order  when he received a check for $49 million and one cent last week from the Monroe County prosecutor's check deception office.

Wrecker service owner Gary Koontz got a check for $50 million. He thought it was hilarious.

No, the county government hasn't started a local version of the Hoosier Lotto. Instead, a new computer in the check deception office went haywire and began spewing out deceptive eight-figure checks.

Other businesses also may have received  or may yet get  checks for millions of dollars from Monroe County.

The checks have the correct amount in the numerical spot on the upper right hand of the Monroe County bank checks  in this case $50 and $49.01. But they have the words "fifty million" and "forty-nine million" on the center line.

The mistakes are the result of a computer error generated by new software that was installed to fix the so-called Y2K problem, said Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzmann.

"We went over to a new computer last week," he said. "We checked the numbers before they went out, but we obviously didn't check the words. The computer guy is coming to fix it. It is ironic that these checks are coming from the check deception department."

Salzmann said that office typically sends out thousands of dollars a month to various businesses that received bad checks. The prosecutor's office tracks down the bad check and gets the money back for the businesses.

Anyone who receives a check for millions should return it to the prosecutor's office and a new check with the correct amount will be issued.

"I knew it was a big mistake, but I told them I wanted to have some fun with it first," Rice said. "It's almost enough to retire on, isn't it?"

Koontz said he was thinking of having the check framed and put up in his office.

"I dearly love this," Koontz said. "It's from a bad check from last October. So it was particularly surprising to get a check for $50 million out of the blue. I told my wife we were millionaires for a day."

Business Editor Brian Werth can be reached at 331-4375 or by e-mail at werth@heraldt.com.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), June 24, 1999

Answers

Got a link? I'd love to post this at another forum.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), June 24, 1999.

Here's the link:

Link

Ray

-- Ray (ray@ttoacc.com), June 25, 1999.