Man with only $3 finds an ATM glitch that gave him millions in cash. Then, he did the right thing

ATMs that crank out unlimited cash can only exist in our imagination, or do they? This is exactly what happened with a 29-year-old man Dan Saunders in 2011. Saunders, who was a working barman in Wangaratta, Australia, was out with a friend for a few drinks when he realized that he didn't have much cash on him, via Vice. 

So he decided to take a short walk to the nearest National Australia Bank ATM. He inserted his card and discovered that he had only $3 in his account. He then decided to try one of the options offered by the bank, which was to transfer his funds from his credit account to his savings account. It came as no surprise that the bank declined to transfer money from the credit account to the savings account.

However, soon he was stunned to realize that his savings account showed a bank balance of $203. He took some cash out and returned to the bar to enjoy the rest of the evening.

On his way back, he stopped at the ATM and tried to transfer funds to his account, and once again the ATM machine showed that the request had been declined. However, his savings balance went up. Up until this point, Saunders had worked at a bar and had never been involved with the police. However, he soon returned to another ATM and transferred $2,000.

This was happening due to a glitch in the system which Saunders failed to understand. At first, he believed that the issue was in a particular ATM and only worked in the morning. However, he soon realized that it worked in all ATMs of that bank and could be done at any time of the day. 

Saunders's girlfriend, who was a teacher at a local primary school, grew concerned about the amount of money Saunders was spending and the fact that he seemed to go to the ATMs so often. Despite having the plan to get hitched soon, his girlfriend decided to end the relationship. After the breakup, his expenditure only worsened, so much so that it started taking a toll on his mental health. 

He began to pay for the company of women and took his friends on exotic short breaks. Once he even chartered a helicopter to take a small group to a $ 2,000-per-night luxury hotel. The bank didn't seem to be concerned about the whole matter. Saunders would occasionally get calls from the bank to confirm if it was him who had used the card, as long as he confirmed, there didn't seem to be a problem. 

On one such occasion, someone from the bank called to ask why Saunders had tried to withdraw $900,000 from an ATM the previous night, to which he said that he was drunk and had probably pressed the wrong buttons. However, things really went south when he started to lose sleep about this whole thing. He suffered panic attacks so badly that he needed medical attention. 

After seeing a psychiatrist, he decided to turn himself in. The following month, he called the bank, which said that they had already understood what he was doing and had contacted the police. Three years passed and nothing happened. He soon decided to talk to the media and appeared on an Australian national current affairs television show, The Current Affair, to finally talk about what he had done. Soon the police became very interested and in 2014, Saunders was finally charged with over 100 counts of fraud and theft.

He found himself in court in 2015, and the world realized that around $1.6 million from NAB had somehow found its way to Saunders' account. In Australia and many other countries, “larceny by finding” is a crime. This means that you cannot simply keep money or items just because you found them. Saunders was sentenced to 12 months in prison and he served another 18 months under a community corrections order. He was also ordered to pay the bank $250,000 in compensation. After his time in jail, he says that he feels way better and is at peace. He also took time out to write his story, which later appeared as an 8-part podcast narrated by Dan and a movie version, Cashout!

This article originally appeared 1 month ago.