Man charged $81 billion at gas pump

RICHLAND, Wash. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - We've all paid more than we wanted to at the gas pump one time or another, but it's nothing like the tab a guy racked up during his latest fill-up.

"A pre-authorization at an automated gas dispenser was approved at $81,400,908 in Richland, Washington," said the message on the answering machine.

A gas station in Washington state charged Juan Zamora more than $81 billion. He only thought he'd pumped $90 worth of gas. You can imagine his surprise when he heard that voice mail from his credit card company.

"I think I dropped the phone once or twice. I was about ready to look up the president's phone number to see if I could get a bailout package," said Juan Zamora.

It turns out that someone keyed in the merchant number instead of the dollar amount.

The credit card company worked the problem out.

Just for fun Zamora did some math and figured out if that bill were right he'd have paid $550 million a gallon.