Man 'quits job and disappears' after being paid $150k instead of $500 by mistake

A man has ended up resigning and completely disappearing after he was accidentally paid £150,000 for a month's worth of work, which was 300 times his salary.

The unnamed employee worked at Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos (Cial), and he should’ve been paid $545 in May, as reported by Chilean financial news website Diario Financiero.

However, back in May, the company accidentally paid him 165,398,851 Chilean Pesos ($178,629), meaning his salary that month was hundreds of times the amount it should have been.

Now, rather than give the money back to the company, the unnamed worker took the money and bolted. He hasn't been seen or heard from since.

Chilean banknotes of 1000, 5000, 10,000, 20,000 pesos and coins. Credit: Credit: REUTERS / Alamy.

The local news outlet said that when HR picked up on the error, Cial reached out to the employee to discuss his mistaken wage.

"He was informed and clarified that this money did not correspond to the payment of any service," Chilean legal documents claim, per Diario Financiero.

The man initially agreed to return the stash and told his employer he would go to the bank the very next day.

His employers were unable to reach him and left multiple calls, texts, and WhatsApp messages. The man later contacted the company on June 2 to hand in his resignation.

Cial has now launched legal action against the former employee after multiple warnings to try and get the excess money back.

The average take-home pay of people in Chile is around $907.87 per month, so it's no surprise that the man disappeared when getting so much more than he was expecting.

While the man in Chile has gone awol with his employers, another employee in the UK decided to launch an unfair dismissal case after being granted £12,138.40 in compensation.

New Look clothing store. Credit: Shawn Williams / Alamy.

According to a tribunal, former New Look worker Samantha Jackson said that she felt bullied by her line manager Kirsty Sherburn, who criticized her for wearing Nike trainers on the job.

The worker said her line manager was aware that she had to wear the trainers due to a knee condition but claims she was advised not to come in wearing the "horrid orange things" again.

The employment tribunal ruled that failures by New Look amounted to a breach of trust and confidence, leading to unfair dismissal.

Employment Judge Jonathan Brain said: "There can be no reasonable and proper reason for a store manager to treat a junior employee in this manner."

Featured image credit: Jorge Donoso / Alamy.