A Kansas woman (not pictured) is accused of taking advantage of a faulty ATM that was dispensing $100 bills instead of $5 bills. (iStock)
A Kansas woman is facing a pricey lawsuit after a bank accused her of making dozens of withdrawals from a faulty ATM that was dispensing $100 bills instead of $5 bills, a local report said Tuesday.
The Central National Bank in Wichita claimed in a Jan. 22 lawsuit that Christina C. Ochoa knew the ATM wasn’t functioning properly and used it to receive as much money as possible, The Wichita Eagle said.
Ochoa reportedly made more than 50 withdrawals over five days in mid-January, several of which were done in the middle of the night, according to documents obtained by The Eagle. The bank wants her to pay back $11,607.36 plus interest, the outlet said.
The lawsuit also names Ochoa’s mother, Christy, since she reportedly drove her daughter to the bank.
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A screen shot of Central National Bank in Wichita, Kansas, according to The Wichita Eagle. (Google Street View)
“The first time the ATM dispensed more money than what was due ... 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,” the lawsuit reportedly said.
The bank claims that instead of the $1,485 Christina should have received, she was actually given $14,120.
The Wichita Eagle spoke to the Ochoas, who said they did nothing wrong. Christy Ochoa told the outlet that her daughter never received larger bills and has receipts as proof of her transactions.
Christy claimed that her daughter made that many transactions in the short period of time because she wanted enough $5 bills to create a “money cake” as a gift for someone, The Eagle said.
“You can’t type in the number of fives you want at the ATM, so that’s why we did multiple transactions,” Christy told the outlet. She also said her daughter had to use the ATM because the bank was closed.
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After the ATM’s issue was acknowledged by the bank, they told Christina to give back the extra money and she “wholly refused to do so,” The Eagle said, citing the lawsuit.
The bank reportedly then held the remaining money in Christina’s account, in order to settle some of the deficit, in addition to a direct deposit received on Jan. 30 totaling more than $600.
Central National Bank is also trying to seize two cars that the Ochoas bought while the ATM was malfunctioning, alleging that the $3,000 down payment for one of them "was made up entirely of one hundred dollar bills," according to the lawsuit.
Christy Ochoa maintained that the cars were bought with money acquired in a car wreck settlement and a student loan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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