Story Archive

Bill Yon, Err

“We had put up Christmas lights and I wondered if we had put them up wrong,” Mary Horomanski said. But unless she recreated the Star of Bethlehem, it’s unlikely she could have used enough electricity to justify the amount Horomanski said her electric company’s website said she owed: $284,460,000,000 — with a minimum payment of $28,156 noted. She contacted her son, who contacted the company. “We appreciate the customer’s willingness to reach out to us about the mistake,” said First Energy spokesman Mark Durbin, who found the explanation obvious: a decimal point had been moved. But then First Energy investigated. “We have reviewed all the audiotapes and there is no record of anyone reaching out to us about this account,” he said. The company now claims it only ever billed Horomanski the “correct” amount, $284.46. But the Erie, Pa., 58-year-old gave a journalist a computer image of the big bill and stuck to her story. “I didn’t put the decimal point in the wrong spot,” she said. (AC/Erie Times-News) ...Which is more likely: a 58-year-old who needs her son to call the electric company for her doctored a photo, or a computer randomly multiplied a number by a billion?