Woman receives $365 billion electricity bill and blames her Christmas lights
Any homeowners familiar with the horrors of opening a pricey utility bill, spare a thought for one woman who was recently informed she owed enough money to buy the Sydney Opera House, the NBA, Netflix and end world hunger for ten years.
Mary Horomanski, 58, couldn’t believe her eyes when she opened her electricity bill and saw the figure staring back at her - $365 billion (US $280b).
When the Pennsylvania woman saw the total, enough to buy out Donald Trump 100 times over, she suspected her family had made a mistake when putting on the Christmas lights.
"I opened it up and there it was... it wasn't due until November of 2018. It was like, well, 'I guess we have a year to come up with this billion-dollar bill'," she told The Washington Post
"We had Christmas lights outside, but we don't have the '[National Lampoon's] Christmas Vacation' lights.
"And I'm looking at my Christmas tree, and I'm like, no, that wouldn't have caused it."
Fortunately for Mary, the figure turned out to be a mistake.
After seeing the bill, Horomanski texted her son, who in turn called the electric company.
Penelec corrected the mistake and readjusted her balance due to the correct amount: $368.46.
“I can’t recall ever seeing a bill for billions of dollars,” said Mark Durbin, a spokesman for Penelec’s parent company First Energy.
“We appreciate the customer’s willingness to reach out to us about the mistake.”
