STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And today's last word is they did a runna(ph) - a runner, that is. That's what they say in New Zealand when somebody takes off, in this case with a lot of money. The owner of a failing gas station asked his bank for overdraft protection and the bank added three more zeros than it should have and approved an overdraft protection of 10 million New Zealand dollars instead of a mere 10,000. Instead of informing his bank of the mistake, the man simply transferred the money to an offshore account.
Talk about an overdraft - and he ran off with his girlfriend. They're believed to be overseas. The girlfriend's mother said she would like to ring the blooming neck of the boyfriend. But 20 percent of readers in a local poll say they'd have done the same thing if their bank had made the same mistake. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.