A Kansas bank is reportedly suing a woman who they accuse of making dozens of withdrawals from a faulty ATM that was dispensing $100 bills instead of $5 bills.
According to The Wichita Eagle, the Central National Bank in Wichita filed a lawsuit on Jan. 22, claiming that Christina C. Ochoa quickly realized the ATM was not functioning properly, and then used it to withdraw as much money as possible.
The bank said Ochoa made more than 50 withdrawals from the malfunctioning ATM over a five-day period from Jan. 13 to Jan. 17, most of which were made in the early hours of the morning, according to court and bank records, reports the paper.
The ATM should have dispensed $1,485 to Ochoa, the bank claims. Instead, the machine spat out almost 10 times that amount—$14,120.
A Central National Bank branch in Wichita, Kan. (Screenshot via Google Maps)The bank is reportedly seeking the return of $11,607.36 plus interest.
Ochoa’s mother, Christy L. Ochoa, is also named in the suit because she drove her daughter to make the withdrawals.
The lawsuit contended: “The first time the ATM dispensed more money than what was due Christina, Christina and Christy had a duty to return the surplus funds to the bank. … Not only did they fail to [do] so, but they capitalized on the situation by making a series of over fifty [50] structured withdrawals, most within minutes of each other, and transacted at all hours of the night in order to expose Central to more loss,” reported the outlet.
Christy Ochoa, who spoke to The Wichita Eagle, said her daughter did nothing wrong. Her daughter kept the receipt for each transaction, and did not receive any $100 bills, the mother said.
“She had every transaction receipt,” Christy said. “My daughter never stole that kind of money.”
Christy said the reason why they made so many withdrawals was because her daughter wanted to make a “money cake” using $5 bills as a gift for a friend, and the bank wasn’t open to give her the exact number of fives she needed, the paper reports.
“You can’t type in the number of fives you want at the ATM, so that’s why we did multiple transactions,” Christy said.
According to the paper, Christy said she could not recall how many fives were used to make the “money cake” or when they gave the cake to the friend.
A “money cake” is made up of rolled bills assembled in the shape of a cake.
When the bank realized the error, they contacted Christina to demand payment of the extra amount, but she “wholly refused to do so,” the paper said, citing the lawsuit.
To settle some of its losses, the bank reportedly seized the balance in Christina’s bank account, as well as a direct deposit of around $600 made by her in late January.
The bank is also seeking to recoup its losses by confiscating two cars the Ochoas bought during the period when they were making the withdrawals. The $3,000 deposit paid for one vehicle “was made up entirely of one hundred dollar bills,” the lawsuit claimed, said the paper.
Christy Ochoa said they bought the cars with funds from a student loan and the proceeds from a car wreck.
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