In July 2013, Chris Reynolds from Delaware Country, Pennsylvania, accessed his PayPal account and discovered a staggering $92 quadrillion (£72 quadrillion).
That’s 15 zeros, in case you’re curious.
For unclear reasons, the 56-year-old, who sells auto parts on eBay in his leisure time, had an eye-watering $92,233,720,368,547,800 transferred into his account.
This made him the world’s richest person and the only one on Earth who could claim to be a quadrillionaire.
Jeff Bezos’ $200 billion (£157 billion) appears insignificant in comparison.
Reynolds told the Philadelphia Daily News, which first reported the tale, that the large figure made him feel ‘like a million bucks’.
And he was naturally perplexed. Before then, the most money he’d ever had in his account was ‘a little over $1,000′ from selling some tires on eBay.
“It’s a curious thing,” he told CNN at the time. “I don’t know, maybe someone was having fun.”
Reynolds’ riches, however, lasted only a second until PayPal discovered they had made a severe error.
When they realised their error, they rectified it and apologized to Reynolds for the unusual incident.
When he entered back into his account a short time later, his balance was once again $0.
PayPal responded in a statement: “This is clearly an error, and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds recognized this.”
When asked what he would have done if he had retained the money, he gave a rather straightforward response.
He stated that he would have used it to “pay down the national debt,” before adding, “Then I would buy the Phillies, if I could get a good price.”
After everything was handled, PayPal offered to contribute an undisclosed sum of money to a charity of Reynolds’ choice.
“We think it’s inspiring that he decided to use this occurrence to donate to a cause he believes in,” the company stated in a follow-up statement.
“And we hope to honour this spirit by donating to a cause of his choice – we’ve reached out to him to make this offer and to let him know we are grateful that he’s a customer!”