We know that banks can get it wrong sometimes but this must be one of the most spectacularly bad gaffes ever!

After all, its one thing to bounce a cheque and it's another to be so far in the red that Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump combined couldn't come close to bailing you out.

Joe Martins from Georgia in the USA, recently closed an account at Wachovia Bank and made good on an outstanding cheque.

Very shortly after he got a letter about the closure and his negative balance: $211,010,028,257,303.00.

That's $211 trillion!!

We laughed because Wachovia was kind enough to round to the nearest dollar. Because arguing over an extra 15c or so would have been so tacky right?

"I didn't know what to think. Obviously $211 trillion is a little above what I put in my bank account," said Martins

Actually $211 trillion is more than 70 times the entire federal budget of the USA!

Wachovia blamed the letter on a word processing error and the office of the president is sending a letter of apology.

Equally amusing but completely opposite is the story of the man who was mistakenly sent a cheque for $2 million.

Proof that life sometimes is indeed, stranger than fiction!