$92 quadrillion: PayPal accidentally makes man a quadrillionaire
Last month, Chris Reynolds had $140 dollars in his PayPal account. On Saturday, he had a little more 鈥� $92 quadrillion, or $92,233,720,368,547,800, to be exact.
The 56-year-old public relations executive from Media, Pa., says he was shocked to see 鈥渁 number with a lot of digits鈥� when he opened his PayPal statement for June.
For a moment, Mr. Reynolds thought he owed someone $92 quadrillion, or 5,411 times the national debt.聽
鈥淭hat was sobering,鈥� he says.
But after Reynolds wrote about the incident on Facebook, his friends pointed out that the statement read 鈥渃redit,鈥� not 鈥渄ebt.鈥� Forget Bill Gates and his $72 billion: with a whopping 17-digits to his name, Reynolds had just become the world鈥檚 richest man.聽
鈥淧eople suggested I might have had long lost relations reappear,鈥� Reynolds says.
If only.聽
When Reynolds logged into his PayPal account to double-check the numbers, his account balance read $0. The whole thing had been a glitch on his statement.
PayPal apologized to Reynolds for the error and offered to make a donation to a nonprofit of his choice.
Since the brief blunder, Reynolds, who works at the PR firm he co-founded with his wife (Reynolds Ink), says he has had some time to think about what he would have done with $92 quadrillion.
The first thing he would have spent the money on was not a sports car, a vacation home, or even an early retirement.
鈥淚鈥檇 want to pay down the US鈥� national debt. That鈥檚 been really bugging me,鈥� Reynolds says.
After that?
鈥淚鈥檓 just a modest man. I would want to buy something for myself 鈥斅爉aybe the Philadelphia Phillies, if I found a good deal. The rest of it, I鈥檇 invest, because that鈥檚 what my father-in-law would want me to do,鈥� Reynolds says.
He would have had plenty left over to do so as a quadrillionaire.
Nevertheless, Reynolds says there was still a silver lining in PayPal's mistake. Friends he had not spoken to in years reconnected with him when he shared his experience on Facebook. And although he聽is usually a man who gets his clients into headlines, Reynolds has become the focus of attention himself through his fleeting moment with $92 quadrillion.
鈥淚鈥檓 enjoying a brief transit as an Internet meme,鈥� Reynolds says.
