Man vanishes after being overpaid hundreds of thousands

A Chilean man quit his job and disappeared after an accidentally major payday where he was overpaid by hundreds of thousands.

A man in Chile has gone off the radar after being accidentally overpaid 330 times his salary by his workplace.

In an extremely rare case of an employee was severely overpaid, instead of being severely underpaid and needing to fight for every cent (looking at you, uni cafe job), the unnamed employee of Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos (CIAL), which makes meat cold cuts, reportedly received a pay check of 165,398,851 Chilean pesos (about $259,960) for his last pay cycle.

His regular pay check was roughly 500,000 Chilean pesos (about $785), according to Santiago-based newspaper, Diario Financiero.

Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos (CIAL) website. Picture: CIAL

The man reported the overpayment to his manager, and the company requested that the man then go his bank to initiate a return of the money.

The Chilean went to his bank as instructed, but instead of transferring the money back to his employer, withdrew it from his account.

After three days of trying to contact the employee, CIAL received a message from the man’s lawyer offering his official resignation. He’s been MIA ever since.

He received the equivalent of an extra $259,175. Picture: iStock

Now, 330 times your regular salary is big money no matter where you are, and with a rising cost of living anyone would welcome a bonus this large. However in Chile, where the average salary is 388,700 Chilean pesos (about $610) — that might just be money worth skipping town for.

The company has reportedly filed a complaint, hoping to recover some of the money by charging the former employee with misappropriation of funds. So far there are no reported arrests.