Oklahoma Man's Coffee Run Goes Awry With $4,500 Charge

An Oklahoma man is in "disbelief" when his Starbucks run turned into a $4,500 expense.

Jesse O'Dell visited a Starbucks drive-thru in Tulsa on January 7, but he didn't realize the "serious" error until later, when his wife and kids were shopping and the card was declined at check out, he told The Kansas City Star. When he looked at his bank account, he saw a Starbucks charge for $4,456.27.

"I felt disbelief. I don't have that kind of money sitting around to just play with," he said.

O'Dell went back to the store and explained his situation, but employees said the charge was legit and he entered a $4,444.44 tip on the card reader machine. A Starbucks spokesperson said O'Dell entered the tip by mistake, which he refutes. "I know how to press buttons. I didn't press that button. If it wasn't the barista then it's definitely your network, which is a really big issue," he said.

After a back and forth with a Starbucks district manager, O'Dell received a check in the mail to refund the charge, but the checks bounced when O'Dell tried to deposit them, he said. "At that point is when I started getting serious," O'Dell said, adding that he filed a police report with Tulsa PD. It was later found out that the first checks from Starbucks bounced because of a typo and a second round was sent to O'Dell, which remain as pending in his bank account.