US smoker chokes on cost of habit

[lhyman]

A man in the United States popped out to his local petrol station to buy a pack of cigarettes - only to find his card charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.
That is $23 quadrillion (£14 quadrillion) - many times the US national debt.
"I thought somebody had bought Europe with my credit card," said Josh Muszynski, from New Hampshire.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8152278.stm

 

[Sharky]

"It also waived the usual $15 overdraft fee."...

And it's a thousand billion
1 quadrillion is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one million million million million, or 10x10^24).

 

[zen-r]

Didn't we already have this story posted here recently?

Edit : Here you go ;

http://forums.x10hosting.com/off-topic/99576-man-charged-23-quadrillion-cigarettes.html

 

[Sharky]

Wow, shows how much attention I pay to this stuff...

 

[lhyman]

hey buddy, can you loan me a few billon to buy a pack of smokes....

I wounder how much a six pack of beer cost....

lol

 

[zen-r]

$23 quadrillion doesn't seem so bad when you put it as £14 quadrillion.

I could almost afford that!

 

[John Klyne]

I don't think the entire US could afford 14quad which is what we owe let alone 23quad...

...guy goes back to the gas station...hey can we work out a payment plan? I can afford about 150$ a month, so um...my great great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great greatgreat great great great great great great grand children can pay you back in no time.

How they hell do they make a mistake like that?

 

[zen-r]

...
How they hell do they make a mistake like that?

garrettroyce already explained how they made the mistake, in the first thread I linked to.

Why have we got 2 threads on this going at once?

http://forums.x10hosting.com/off-topic/99576-man-charged-23-quadrillion-cigarettes.html