When this couple woke up one day and realized that they suddenly had an extra two digits in their account balance, instead of trying to find out what had happened, they made the worst decision of their lives.
The Struggle Is Real
For young couples in specific, buying a house and having a comfortable life can be hard in many places around the world. So for the Williams family, discovering that they had much more money than they thought they did completely changed their lives.
We all know how good of a feeling it is to put our hands in our pocket and find the money we had no idea existed. So imagine the hype when this happened to a young couple from Pennsylvania, but just thousands of dollars more. While this is extremely unusual, it did happen to this young couple, who had been struggling with money for years
A Regular Family
Robert and Tiffany Williams, 36 and 35 years old respectively, lived a pretty regular life. They got married in 2014, celebrating their love with family and friends in an intimate ceremony. Before getting married, they had been together for a while and had four children together.
Robert worked at a water management company and was taken as a fairly good employee. He also proudly shared his passion for racing, constantly sharing pictures of his race car with his family and friends. He loved the sport so much that he created a Facebook page named after their family name “Williams Motorsports.”
Sharing Their Lives
While he mostly shared racing and car related information on the page, he also regularly acknowledged the support of his wife in his hobby, and how he felt encouraged by her to pursue his passion. Tiffany, on the other hand, settled for being a stay at home mother while working part-time at the local post-office, located just a couple of miles west of Montoursville.
According to their social media platforms, the couple looked happy, living a fulfilling family life with their children. While it was clear that they weren’t the richest people in Pennsylvania, they were doing the best they could moneywise, hoping to pay for their debts in the near future.
Just A Regular Morning
So when the couple woke up on an ordinary morning in early June 2019, none of them thought much of the day. For both of them, it was just another morning, followed by their morning routine with their kids.
They had no idea they were about to face the hardest decision of their lives on that same day. They lived in a relatively nice neighborhood, with other middle-class Americans who, just like them, had bills and debts to pay. And just like many, they had the habit of checking their bank account balance regularly. That day wasn’t different.
An Unusual Balance
This habit is probably one of the most common habits of people who don’t have much and therefore monitor their balance regularly just in case. So when the couple checked their account that day, they weren’t ready for the balance they were about to see.
They kept staring at the number for what seemed like an eternity, just to make sure they saw correctly. Apparently, their bank account balance had gone through a whopping increase of $120,000.
A Lottery Ticket
The day before, they had just a bit over a thousand dollars in their account, but on that day at the beginning of June, they suddenly had hundreds of dollars. For the young couple, it almost felt like they had just won the lottery without even buying a ticket.
While they knew that it was completely impossible for the amount to have not been a mistake made by their bank, BB&T, they chose to disregard it.
So Many Possibilities
It was obvious that the huge amount had been accidentally deposited by someone or even by the bank itself. Another option could have been that the bank’s online system wasn’t working properly, and was, therefore, showing an inaccurate balance.
The array of possibilities was enormous, and yet, the Williams decided not to call the bank to check what had happened. Instead, they looked at each other and acted as if the newly found amount in their bank account was theirs.
Every Cent Was Gone
The couple didn’t do much thinking before deciding together that they were not going to notify the bank about what had just happened. Instead, they made a plan to spend the cash on everything they had always wanted to pay for but never did.
While it might seem almost impossible to spend that amount of cash in that timeframe, the Williams was not playing around. In just sixteen days, the young couple managed to spend every single cent. They had no idea though that things were also going to go down the drain very quickly.
Buying A Race Car
In two and a half weeks, the Williams family went on a money spending spree. One would think that eventually, the bank would realize that the couple was unusually making large sums, but nothing happened for days.
The first thing that Robert did when the couple decided to spend the money was to buy a sports car. Due to his passion for the sport and for that particular style of cars, he decided that his first big purchase would be the car of his dreams.
A Car Shopping Spree
Robert and Tiffany made several trips to local car dealerships so that they could make an informed choice in such a little amount of time. After a couple of visits, they both agreed on the car they loved the most.
For the surprise of their neighbors, the couple got home with a new race car, a Chevy. Days after, they also managed to buy a brand new SUV. They didn’t’ think for one second about how suspicious the shopping spree would be for others around them.
Clear Priorities
On top of the two new cars, the Williams family already had a car. But the car was old and needed quite a number of repairs. So they thought that would be the perfect time to repair their car too.
Then, they would have three perfectly functional cars for the family of six. They even managed to throw in a brand new trailer to the mix. Judging by the amount of money they put towards their car, their list of priorities became very clear.
Paying All Bills
It was no surprise to anyone that the couple were big fans of cars in general. Following their car shopping spree, they continued spending the money as much and as quickly as they could. They quickly started to pay for all of their bills and existing debts.
For a middle-class family like they were, debts were a constant burden and weren’t easy at all to pay. Especially for people who mainly lived on a salary to a salary basis.
Giving Some Of The Money Away
So they sat down and started making their calculations on the best way to wipe out all of their bills. They even had enough money left to give it away to close friends and other family members, giving away roughly $15,000.
While it was obvious for their friends and family members that this was unusual behavior, it seemed like the free money had blinded everyone, because no one asked questions. Everyone just accepted the money and moved on.
An Irresponsible Decision
Despite it all, the couple managed to hide everything from everyone, carrying out with their lives as if nothing had changed. They knew that if they told anyone about what they were up to, most people wouldn’t agree with their decision.
Even they knew deep inside that spending money that was clearly not theirs was completely irresponsible. Even so, the prospect of buying everything they were suddenly able to buy and pay for, made up for any of their fears.
An Unusual Situation
Also, the couple was completely stunned by the fact that they were able to get away with it all. With the amount of security that banks usually have, where security procedures go through tens of stages, it seemed incredible that they had been spending such a large amount of money so freely without being contacted by anyone at the bank.
Most of the time, there was no way that anybody could get away with the situation, but Williams did.
Realizing The Money Was Missing
They were sure they had completely gotten away with it by then. But sometimes in life, justice is served for those who make poor choices. And in no time, the young couple was about to face the consequences of what they had done.
After a couple of weeks, a local company realized that they were missing $120,000. They contacted their bank, BB&T, with the intention of asking about a deposit that seemed not to have gone through.
Finding The Truth
The bank realized there had been a mistake, and in no time, they refunded the $120,000 to the business. The staff was completely stunned by what had happened and quickly started tracking the money.
The bank realized that the transfer had been wrongly made to the Williams’ family account, and was completely surprised when they found out that the couple had spent $100,000 from the initial $120,000. There was no way someone would make such an irresponsible decision, they thought.
No Response
So, BB&T chose to charge the Williams’ with $107,000, including overdraft fees for the fact that they had spent much more money than what they had the funds for. Still, both TIffany and Robert remained chilled.
They didn’t respond to the numerous attempts the bank made to contact them, didn’t return any of the cars or other big purchases they had made, and kept living their lives as if nothing had happened during those weeks.
A Payment Plan
Obviously, the BB&T team wasn’t about to let this pass. So they decided to contact Tiffany directly with a much more serious tone. They understood then that if the couple hadn’t paid back by then, and didn’t seem worried at all to do so, the process was about to be a little bit more challenging.
It took her a while to respond, but when she did, she carelessly said that she had to talk to her husband so they could think of a payment plan.
Not Taking It Seriously
After that, she never got back to them again, and the bank had no other choice but to make a more threatening decision. Williams clearly didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation they were in.
Eventually, the bank understood what had happened for such a huge mistake to be made. It all started with a teller at a BB&T branch in Georgia. The teller mistakenly wrote the wrong account number, resulting in the deposit being made to the Williams account.
What Really Happened
For the bank, this mistake could happen to anyone. So after days with no response from the couple, they decided to open a case with the authorities. They opened a legal case against them, resulting in each of them facing several felony charges, with the possibility of being in prison for up to ten years.
Both Tiffany and Robert were arrested and interrogated. After telling the same story to the authorities, it was decided that the friends and family members who had received money from them wouldn’t have to pay anything.
Not The First Time
They eventually made bail, paying $25,000 each. It also turned out that Robert had a criminal record, and had been convicted before. He had been charged with ‘theft by deception and false impression.’ He had clearly not learned his lesson, dragging his wife this time to the mistake of their lifetime.
The couple has yet to discuss a plea bargain, but for now, they are in a pretty bad situation. Family members and friends of the couple who have spoken to the press, claim that they’re all completely surprised. It does turn out that sometimes, we should definitely think twice before making a decision with such serious consequences.