Woman Opens Her Bank Account and Sees a Stranger Wired Her $8M. Years Later, She Still ‘Regrets’ What She Did Next (Exclusive)

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Shawna Flener discovered $8.7 million was mistakenly transferred to her Fidelity Investments account in June 2024

• Flener told PEOPLE that the error was caused by the mystery sender entering the wrong account number

• The 38-year-old’s viral social media post about the experience sparked debate about what people would do in her situation

It was a typical morning in June 2024 when Shawna Flener checked her Fidelity Investments account; But what he saw was far from the norm.

He had over $8.7 million in his account, but the 38-year-old told PEOPLE the money wasn’t his. A mysterious sender apparently typed in the wrong account number before sending the multi-million dollar wire transfer, which ended up in his hands.

“I called Fidelity right away. It was just my instinct,” he says. “I remember being in the office when I noticed the money, and after sitting there in shock for a few minutes, I calmly excused myself to get up and call them.”

Flener said the representative he spoke to at Fidelity said he was “stunned” and had “never seen anything like it.”

“He asked me if I was sure the money wasn’t mine, which made me laugh,” he adds. “I assured him that I didn’t have $8 million and I didn’t know anyone who had $8 million.”

The representative told him he would “alert the appropriate team to investigate, but in general wire transfers are final.” Although there was initial hope that he could keep the money, Flener knew that was probably not true.

Still, he asked if he could “buy stocks with it” because the money was transferred directly to his brokerage account, so “there wouldn’t even be a need to transfer the money to another account to invest in those funds.” But he said he asked her not to do so because it would “make things even more complicated.”

While the financial company tried to get to the bottom of things, Flener couldn’t help but stare at the Fidelity app all day, stunned to see $8,786,167.73 in his account.

Flener admits he never found out who sent the money, but Fidelity withdrew it from his account later that day, about seven hours after he first noticed it.

“A few days later, I received an email from the customer service team stating that my account number was initially entered incorrectly; it did not come through Fidelity’s system,” he shares. “I really wish I knew more.”

Looking back, Flener told PEOPLE he wishes he hadn’t called Fidelity “right away” and had “waited a little while longer to see what happened.”

“I’m not saying I’m going to flee the country and accept living as a fugitive or anything like that – although it sure would be fun to fantasize about doing exactly that!” he says. “It was much more exciting to discuss these ideas when you actually had the funds to make it happen.”

“I set the default position for this brokerage account to money market fund, which means if $8 million stays there all day it will automatically be invested,” he continues. “I’m hoping they’ll also refund the interest earned when the mistake was first discovered, but who knows. It would be more fun to see how this plays out and how long it takes.”

Fortunately, he says, the mistake didn’t have long-term repercussions like tax problems.

Flener recently posted a social media video about the “crazy” experience, joking that looking back “when you think about the regrets I have in my life, I’m pretty sure I’ll always remember June 28, 2024.”

“That was the day Fidelity accidentally transferred $8.7 million into my bank account and my royal ass called them to let them know there was a mistake and let me know what I needed to do to help resolve the situation and get the money back to the person who needed it,” he said in the video, which has garnered more than 2.5 million views.

“I’m just going to go out on a limb and say this: Whoever wired $8.7 million and didn’t even take the time to make sure it was processed properly (because we found out they messed up) probably didn’t need that money that much,” he added.

Flener, who usually shares his book reviews on social media channels, says he is both “surprised and amused” by the reactions online.

“It was really fun to see how many people were fascinated by the ‘What would you do if $8 million suddenly appeared in your account’ scenario,” he tells PEOPLE. “The three main groups seem to be people who think I’m doing the right thing, people who will flee the country, and people who will go to jail.”

Fidelity Investments did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Read the original article People