Pennsylvania woman hit with a $284 billion electric bill

A Pennsylvania woman put up Christmas lights to spread some holiday cheer.

For a moment, she thought that cheer came with a hefty price tag. 

Mary Horomanski says she was stunned to learn she owed her electric company, Penelec, more than 284 billion dollars. 

“My eyes just about popped out of my head,” the 58-year-old told the Erie Times-News. “We had put up Christmas lights and I wondered if we had put them up wrong.

The entire sum was due in November 2018, but a modest amount of $28,000 was due by the end of December.

After a quick survey of her holiday decorations, Horomanski knew something was horribly wrong.

“We had Christmas lights outside, but we don’t have the ‘[National Lampoon’s] Christmas Vacation’ lights,” she told the Washington Post. “And I’m looking at my Christmas tree, and I’m like, no, that wouldn’t have caused it . . . ”

Turns out, a decimal point on the bill was accidentally moved.

Horomanski’s son learned that the bill was actually $284 after contacting the company. It was quickly corrected.

“I can’t recall ever seeing a bill for billions of dollars,” a spokesperson for Penelec’s parent company First Energy told the Times-News. “We appreciate the customer’s willingness to reach out to us about the mistake.”

The massive mistake could have sent anyone into cardiac arrest, prompting Horomanski to ask her son for a new Christmas gift.  

“I told him I want a heart monitor,” Horomanski told the newspaper.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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