Man mistakenly donated $15,000 instead of $150. What happened next was heart-warming

A man in the United States mistakenly added a couple of zeroes to the amount he wanted to give away to charity and accidentally donated $15,000 instead of $150 to a hunger relief programme.

Media reports have mentioned that the man from California, who goes by the username u/lazybear90 on Reddit, donated a lot more and told the story on the subreddit TIFU.

The incident took place in February of last year, but what happened next after this honest mistake is quite heart-warming. The 32-year-old man, who has been identified in the media as Michael, explained what had happened.

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While sharing his story, he wrote in the thread that the incident happened soon after he had moved into a new apartment building in San Francisco last year with his wife.

One of the neighbours in the new apartment told him about a charity he managed for a community in Bangladesh, which was on GoFundMe.

Michael was pretty much convinced by the neighbour, who has been described by the Reddit user as a "70-something-year-old retired veteran", who was said to be a "white American guy" and "a devout Hindu priest". Michael referred to as Joe in the thread.

He said, "The next day at work, I go on the GoFundMe page and donate $150. Or so I thought" but was shocked when he received a warning from his credit card company about an "unusually large transaction".

He wrote that it appeared he had accidentally started typing his credit card information while the cursor was still in the donation box.

He wanted to fix the situation, only to realise later that...

Michael said he called GoFundMe's support line and spoke to a human operator, who told him that his transaction will be reversed and he will get the money in three to seven business days.

He said that he asked the employee if the charity will be able to see the donation on the GoFundMe page until it is refunded. The employee replied "yes".

He wrote, "'Will they be able to see the $15,041 donation?!'While replying to this, the agency said yes. They will be able to see it until the refund process is complete - a situation quite problematic for Michael as he had written that "the entire GoFundMe had hardly raised that much at that point. Surely they will notice their fundraiser doubling overnight?"

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And the next day, he received more than 40 Facebook notifications from an individual in Bangladesh, who was thanking him for such a huge donation - which put him in a tricky spot.

Michael said that those responses made him rethink his decision as he added that he "couldn't live with myself just donating $150 after seeing how the community responded to the $15,041".

"I decided the least I could do was to add a zero, and so I donated $1,500 once the original donation was refunded. The charity's host was incredibly gracious and understanding, and he explained to me that $1,500 goes very far in Bangladesh for urgent food relief," Michael wrote.

Media reports have also mentioned that his story also helped in raising more money after itwent viral and more people got to know about the charity.

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