$11,000 Water Bill: Mistake Shows Manteca Couple Using 440,000 Gallons
MANTECA (CBS13) — An 80-year-old couple was shocked when they received a water bill for more than $11,000. The utility service in Manteca said the bill was a massive mistake that they missed.
"Opened it up, and looked at it and picked it back up, looked at it—can't be," Glenn Page said.
The Manteca water bill showed the Pages owed more than $11,000 for one billing cycle.
The city of Manteca claimed the Pages had used more than 440,000 gallons of water. That's the equivalent of about 80 tanker trucks.
"I must be using dehydrated water, because the house would be on pontoons if that's how much water was leaking," Page said.
Glenn went to city hall and complained. The city admitted its mistake immediately, blaming the computer system and a radio-transmitted reader.
The finance director told CBS13 that 99.9 percent of its bills are accurate and these mistakes are typically caught by an employee before being sent out.
The $11,000-bill has been canceled and their new bill is supposedly for $71. The couple is waiting for the new bill in the mail.
The Pages have laminated the old bill and are saving it for posterity.
