Don Mathis was in for some good news ”” sort of. He wouldn’t have to pay another water bill for 600 years. But the circumstances of such good fortune left the Houston man sourly dismayed.
Mathis thought his check for $99,000 was safely en route to a Dallas securities firm where it would be used to purchase a certificate of deposit. Instead, it arrived at Houston’s Department of Public Works and Engineering office, where it was automatically processed, endorsed and deposited.
“It’s a comedy of errors,” Mathis said, noting that he never suspected anything was amiss until he received a nervous phone call from Dallas. “I have no idea what went wrong. I’ve done this a jillion times.”