a) Possession is 9/10th of the law.
b) Finders keepers losers weepers.
c) My ship came in, and I was there to greet it.
d) Follow the advice of the Community Chest Monopoly card and keep the $200 ($120,000) error the bank made in your favor.
e) Nothing like that.
In a story that has more links than a chain of an aircraft carrier's anchor, by now the WORLD has heard of the couple in Pennsylvania that went on a spending spree when they noticed that $120,000 mistakenly went into their bank account, only to realize that whatever "legal advice" they claim to have received —"we took some bad legal advice"—did not really apply to the bank's mistake, and no, they can't keep the money, and if they try, it's fraud.
The knuckleheads in PA bought all kinds of things, including giving $15,000 to their friends, probably the same bunch that advised them to keep the money based on the first four articles of legal possession outlined above.
Growing up as annoying children, there was always someone who would claim when they swiped something of yours that "possession is 9/10th of the law" when they wouldn't give it back. Well then, this punch is 100% mine.
There was also the snot who chimed in, always an annoying pitch, "finders keepers losers weepers." They too found them themselves the recipient of a punch, unless it was a girl, who only got the item wrestled away from them. (This of course lead to the mistaken stereotype growing up that women were easy—they were the "weaker sex," right? Dad said so—and all you had to do was apply a little pressure and they'd cave. You learn A LOT growing up.)
The couple, Robert and Tiffany (no wonder this happened) Williams of Montoursville, PA*, just outside Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series went on a two-and-a-half week spending sprees before the bank , BB&T told them of the error.
But before the real world came crashing back into to the life of the couple, they had bought: a camper; a race car; a Chevy SUV; two four-wheelers; a trailer; as well as gave friends of theirs $15,000 (charitable) and paid off some bills (noble).
In the rear-view mirror of life, the couple is accused by many, including a neighbor, Robert Pinton, of being stupid, "I'm not that dumb, but some people do stupid things sometimes."
As much as it can be admitted that the couple acted rather recklessly, they at least pumped up the economy, and paid sales tax, I'm sure. They didn't head off to the nearest racino and start pumping the slots, or playing video poker or blackjack, or treat them themselves to a Las Vegas junket and blow the whole wad. By the time the bank got to them, they still had $13,000 left, plus of course some tangible assets that I'm sure will be returned, with some depreciation assessed.
They were foolish, but still charitable, by giving needy friends $15,000, maybe even greatly overpaying for the legal advice they received.
Mae West said "too much of a good thing in wonderful," but she probably wasn't talking about bank errors.
*Onofframp can boast of at least one alert reader, their son-in-law, who, by virtue of being a lifelong Yankee fan, knew immediately that Montoursville, PA was the birthplace of Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher Mike Mussina. It takes an extremely alert reader to point these things out.
The baseball connection might mean that the people the Williams family gave money to, or took legal advice from, might be Mike's relatives or themselves his old neighbors. Mike would have been way too smart to give such unsound legal advice himself.
But the possibility is raised that working out of the back of his pickup truck in the Walmart parking lot, Lenny Dykstra might have been in the area attempting to resurrect his reputation as a financial wizard.
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