UMMM.....OOPS!

Here's something we've all done at one time or another. We've all fallen asleep at work or behind the keyboard. I know that I've done it. In fact, I probably shouldn't be sharing this, but when I was working at Z100 in New York City, many moons ago, I was put on an overnight shift as a board operator, where all I had to do was run some tape and play commercial spots. Sounds easy enough, right? Not when you're tired! I ended up putting my head down because I knew the segment was about fifteen minutes long. Well, I slept a little longer then I wanted to and woke up to, what we call in the business, "dead air", which is just dead silence on the airwaves. I had no idea how long the dead air was, but this was Z100 New York. I was going to get so fired! Lucky for me, it was so early in the morning that none of my bosses were even up yet. I was in the clear...until now, I guess!

Anyway, a German bank clerk was not as lucky. He dozed off while at the keyboard and ended up entering 222,222,222 Euros in a transaction, which if converted over, could've cost the bank about $293 million dollars. That is great! The error was blamed on a bank clerk who was assigned to transfer the relatively small sum of 62 Euros and 40 cents, or just over $80, to the account of a retiree. See? Why do these things keep happening to people who are already retired? Power Ball winners.....Mega-Millions winners, etc. Apparently, there was no red bull in this German bank, this poor tired soul, fell asleep for a second, while pushing the number "2" key down on the keyboard. The transfer was sent for 222,222,222 Euros and 22 cents. I think that is absolutely hilarious!

The bank said that it handily discovered the mistake and corrected it, but the case was taken to court by the snoozer's colleague, a 48-year-old supervisor who had worked for the bank since 1986. She was subsequently fired for not checking the order amount when she was supposed to verify it. Lucky for her, the court ruled that the supervisor should have received a caution instead of being fired and ruled that she should be reinstated. Here in America, they would be totally fired for a transaction like this! How funny is that?