14 DAY TRIAL // A University of Delaware student could have walked away with $1,800 (€1,380) in an ATM error, but instead decided to return the money to the bank.
Devon Gluck, from Ellicott City, Maryland received 18 $100 (€76) bills from a PNC ATM. The incident occurred on the Trabant University Center campus on February 1. Gluck is a senior at University, and he is studying for a finance major.
“My eyes just opened really wide, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is $1,800 right here.’ [...] It’s pretty crazy,” he tells Delaware Online.
He waited for a few instants to decide what to do, and finally acted out of instinct and took it with him. On February 5, he brought it back to the bank, following a conversation with his father on the matter.
“After a couple days of just thinking about it, the right thing would be just to return the money. [...] I mean, it was just eating at me at the time because it isn’t mine and I didn’t even know what to do with it,” he describes.
“I kind of just thought maybe I can get something good out of this. [...] I’ll definitely feel better, and I’m looking into going into banking and finance, so I felt like this was a good opportunity to meet someone, get a good reference and do the right thing,” he adds.
PNC spokeswoman Marcey Zwiebel explains that the money had been withdrawn from another student's account by mistake. The proper owner of the cash has since been refunded by the bank.
“Honesty is always the best policy when talking about money, and keeping money that you’re not authorized to have for any amount of time is unlawful,” she says.