Woman Inadvertently Purchases World's Most Expensive Latte

Last Christmas Eve, Lisa Angello took a few out-of-town guests to the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora, Colorado, so the kids could go ice skating. She bought a cinnamon dulce latte at the coffee shop there. The following Monday, she received an insufficient funds notice from her bank, USAA. This surprised her, because she pays careful attention to her bank account. When she checked her account, she saw that there was a $5,705.70 charge from the Gaylord. At first she thought someone had stolen her account information. Then she realized that the latte had cost $5.70. The cashier had entered the amount twice. "That's a trip to Paris cinnamon dulce latte," Angello told Contact Denver7 news.

It seemed like it would be simple to resolve such an obvious error. But not so! Since the end of December, Angello has been going back and forth between USAA and the Gaylord to get the $5,700 refunded to her bank account. Without that money, she's been unable to pay bills for things that she actually bought.

In an email, a representative from the Gaylord claimed that the resort had refunded the charge in January, but USAA never received it. The bank initially credited Angello's account anyway, but then took the money away again last week.

Crusading reporters from Contact Denver7 got on the case and asked both the resort and the bank why they were having so much trouble resolving such an uncomplicated issue. Neither gave a direct answer, but a few hours later, the money showed up in Angello's account again as a provisional credit. And maybe it will stay there?

This is, perhaps, a very strong argument in favor of POS systems that have prices already programmed in so things like this don't happen. And maybe whatever the opposite of a recommendation is for both the Gaylord and USAA Bank.