Man who became richest person in world for two minutes explained what he would've done with $92 quadrillion
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: NBC / Romantiche / Alamy
A man who briefly became the richest person in the world has shared how he would have spent the $92 quadrillion that he found in his PayPal account.
One day back in 2013, Chris Reynolds from Pennsylvania opened up PayPal expecting to see the $140 he had stored there, only to be met with a whole lot more - $92 quadrillion more, actually.
Chris' first reaction was panic, assuming that the banking app was suggesting that he owed someone $92,233,720,368,547,800 (£81,000,000,000,000,000).
That's more than 337,000 times more than Elon Musk's entire net worth.
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It wasn't until he posted about the shocking bank statement on Facebook that someone pointed out that the astronomical figure was under 'credit', rather than 'debt'.
Before this, the most money Chris had ever seen in his PayPal account was 'a little over $1,000' for selling a set of vintage BMW tires on eBay.
Unfortunately, though, Chris' good fortune was short-lived and the reading was obviously, though devastatingly, a glitch.
When he logged back in to his account, the account balance had gone down to $0.
"This was obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr Reynolds understands this was the case," PayPal said in a statement to the BBC at the time.
The company also offered to make a donation to a cause of Chris' choice as an apology.
Luckily, Chris wasn't too hurt by the incident, and was able to see the funny side.
"It's a curious thing. I don't know, maybe someone was having fun," he told Eyerys.
Since the error, Chris has had plenty of time to daydream about what he would have spent that unimaginable sum of money on if it really had landed in his account - and it wasn't the typical dream car/ luxury estate, exotic vacation that you typically hear lottery winners go for.
He said: “I’d want to pay down the US’ national debt. That’s been really bugging me."
A man of the people.
At the time of writing, the US national debt stands at $30 trillion, so rest assured Chris would definitely have had some cash left over to spend on himself after solving the financial crisis.
And what would the rest of his money go towards, you ask?
"I’m just a modest man. I would want to buy something for myself," he said.
"Maybe the Philadelphia Phillies, if I found a good deal. The rest of it, I’d invest, because that’s what my father-in-law would want me to do."